Angelic Embrace
by PsychicDreams
Summary: Pluto watched and waited, but the future she wanted didn't come about. Now, after ten years that Usagi has been missing, she is tired of waiting. She's bringing the Senshi together herself, one of them dragging along four unexpected others.
1. Prologue

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Prologue_

Usagi ran down the street at her usual speed, whining at how late she was going to be, dropping the bandage that she had pulled off the top of a black cat's head. She slammed into a body hard and went sprawling on her back. She looked up, whether to apologize or chastise the person, when she froze. The man scared her in just one glance more than anyone she had ever known.

Slowly the blonde-haired girl stood up and backed away. "Gomen-nasai," she whispered and made to walk around him carefully, as if he were a bomb ready to explode.

"No, do forgive me," he said in an oily voice as he turned to her.

She squeaked in terror as he flung his hand out at her, grabbing the front of her shirt. _Too late, too late, a chant said in her mind. A flash image of a dark skinned woman with long, thick green hair in a strange uniform that she seemed to know well and yet didn't ran toward her. The next second and it was gone._

Her eyes widened and she screamed as her body became encased in a bubble-like enclosure. She barely glimpsed a thing outside the obscuring fog wherever she was. Suddenly it popped and she fell, landing with a thud on a beautifully white, paved walkway. Looking up, she saw the most gorgeous looking building she'd ever seen.

It resembled a palace from a young girl's dreams, ones that she herself had always wished to be a princess of. She stood up slowly, rubbing her bottom. Her eyes went as wide as saucers as she saw the lush gardens and fountains decorating the front of the white and silver palace. It had a dome top for the entrance and it went sprawling after that, so far back that she couldn't see past the walls.

Usagi looked back down at the sidewalk. It was a pearly white, with no cracks or stones unplaced. Someone really took care of this place, she thought. She walked forward a bit, the heels of her school shoes clicking a little on the stone and marble underneath her feet. She had had a vague notion to go inside the palace when she stopped dead in her tracks.

The most beautiful woman she had ever seen had just left it.

Her hairstyle was an exact replica of Usagi's, only longer and not blonde. It was gray/silver color, tinted with the palest of purple. She wore a long, white, strapless dress with a crescent moon placed on the center of the bodice. On her forehead was an upturned crescent moon, an exact replica of the one on her chest, only smaller. Beads on either side of it that flowed up into her hair made her think of perhaps it was an ornament, but she knew different. 

On her head sat a beautiful crown. It was made of what looked like to be gold. In the middle, it looked to be a heart, with a skinny ruby in the center. On either side of the heart, golden wings sprouted, as if it was prepared to take flight. In the very center of the dip of the heart, was a small king type crown, one that was used back in the olden days, in the old movies that Usagi had seen with her friends.

_(AN: The crown on her head is the one that Usagi wears when she's Neo Queen Serenity.)_

The woman smiled at her and walked forward. Usagi felt the love radiating off the woman and wondered how fear could exist in the world with people like her. 

"Who are you?" Usagi whispered.

"I'm Queen Serenity."

"Oh wow! You're a queen? Sugoi! Is this your palace? How do you keep it so beautiful?"

She laughed, her laughter tinkling down to Usagi's ears, for she was much taller than the young girl. "Yes this is my palace, but not mine alone."

Usagi blushed, thinking she had made a serious error. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave out the king, your husband obviously, but—"

"There is no king here."

The school girl looked up at the woman, barely seeing the flash of inconceivable sorrow, a sorrow that had no bounds, cross her face. "I'm sorry. Did he die?"

"Yes, but that was not what I meant by the palace was not mine alone."

"What did you mean?"

"It also belongs to you, Princess Serenity, my daughter."

Usagi gasped.

Makoto stumbled and fell onto one knee. The other students gave her a wide berth as she struggled to get her body working. She had this overwhelming vision of a bubble enclosed palace that wanted to strike a cord within but she had no idea why. 

That night, she dreamt.

Makoto found herself in a strange form of her school uniform, green and pink the predominate colors with a very short skirt. The entire space around her was black except for white bubbles that made an entire square field of unbreakable barriers. For some reason, she felt the unreasonable urge to break through it. 

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

The strange words flowed from her mouth and shocked her when lightning came from an antenna on her forehead. Unfortunately, she felt a strong disappointment when nothing appeared to change. She found herself yanked back forcefully and she sat up abruptly in her bed.

Minako choked on the water she was drinking as she was assaulted with the strangest vision. She blinked rapidly and found herself in the same place that Makoto had, though she knew it not. 

Anger filled her and she found no source for it. "Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" she screamed before she was pulled back when water was splashed on her face.

Ami dropped her books on the sidewalk as she walked down the street. Her hands clenched the side of her head as a migraine threatened to break her mind completely. When she opened her eyes, she found a computer in her hand and in front of her an impenetrable wall of bubbles. A beeping from the computer came at her that was oddly familiar, though she couldn't make out anything it was showing her.

"Hey, are you all right?"

She looked at the stranger and immediately grabbed her books from the ground. "I'm fine, thank you," she said, hurrying off.

Rei was meditating when she felt it. She scrambled to the sacred fire, its call nearly overpowering her with its near mindless need.

She didn't even have to time to do her incantations when her mind was assaulted with the vision. She barely glanced at the strange thing she wore. The evil that radiated off the white bubbles bothered her immensely and she immediately struck out at it, though not in her usual way.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

An arrow made of flame flew from her hands. She expected it to pierce the obvious looking thin texture, but it simply splashed off it like it hit water, creating steam and not much else.

Just as quickly as the vision had been struck at her, it was gone and Rei slumped, tired beyond belief.

"World Shak—"

Neptune had to catch her partner as she stumbled, her attack interrupted by the same thing that battered at her mind. She just managed to finish off the daemon before she was transported to a strange place she had never been before. 

Uranus studied the bubbles, feeling the texture. It left a bit of a sticky residue on her glove, like a soap bubble, though each of them was at least the size of her torso. 

"If it was made of water, my attack should break them," the tall blonde said. "World Shaking!"

"Help me," a voice whispered as the yellow orb connected and did nothing else.

"Princess!" yelled Neptune as they were yanked back to the real world.

"Why did you yell 'Princess', Neptune?" her partner asked as she picked herself up from the ground.

"I don't know."

Mamoru collapsed in the hospital hallway and the man he was shadowing had to catch him. Though the hospital staff tried to waken him, he never did. For ten years, he laid asleep, kept from being put to sleep permanently by an unknown source of money flow.

For those ten years, the young man haunted the blackness around the bubble barrier, always trying to break through it and always being repelled. And through it all, the occasional call for help would sound. 

End of Prologue


	2. Part 01

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 1_

Pluto had watched the time stream for a long time. Sailor Moon, fighting and finding friends. Beryl and Metallia, the Death Phantom, the Death Busters, the Dead Moon, and Galaxia. She had wanted it to happen all that way. She dropped to her knees and cried. This possibility had been so remote that she hadn't even entertained its likelihood. And now she was paying for it. Now Luna would not find the Princess and Sailor Moon, she wouldn't find the Senshi… She had tried so hard to make it and save the Princess before she was trapped, but in the end it had been for naught.

The Soldier of Time knew she would just have to wait it out, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Makoto trumped the man she was fighting and collected her winnings. She grabbed the army bag that she'd bought when she graduated high school and moved on. There were more tournaments out there for street fighters like her and no one had beaten her yet. She was a legend among them all. 

Many had come to her to fight her and win, but none had. The amazing strength of her body, her lean grace, the swiftness of a panther striking, was not something that she had been taught nor could teach to anyone else.

For some reason, fighting relieved an ache in her heart that had been there since that fateful day she had collapsed outside of her junior high building, the night that she had dreamt of the bubble place. The memory hadn't left her, not at all, nor the insistent feeling that she was supposed to be doing something, finding _someone. _

"Jupiter!"

She turned around when someone called her street fighter name. No one she knew ever used their real names unless they were unbeatable, and though she was, she wasn't at the top of the list. She was climbing the rungs of the power ladder of street fighting quickly in recent years, but there was always something holding her back. As if she didn't want to get too involved in something and be forced to leave it. Why she felt this way, she didn't know.

A woman with olive green hair and dark skin walked up to her. Together, they meandered in silence.

Finally she commented, "I was watching you fight. You're very good at what you do."

"Thanks." She brushed her long brown hair from her face. "I try."

"In a few months, you might even be the greatest street fighter that has ever been seen."

"Hmm."

The woman wore sunglasses so Makoto couldn't see her eyes, but she felt the piercing gaze as the woman in the maroon suit looked at her. "You don't know how you do what you do, do you?"

Makoto shrugged. "Not really. Fighting is just a gift that I'm especially good at."

"Is that why you chose street fighting instead of, say, another career, perhaps culinary?"

Green eyes could be just as piercing, she thought, as she leveled one on the taller woman. "I suppose so," she said slowly, watching her suspiciously.

"Have you ever thought that maybe there was a higher purpose to your ability to fight than just the ability to fight for no reason?"

"Not really." Makoto's flat reply did not seem to faze her. "Look, I have to go. It was…strange talking to you." She didn't beat around the bush; if it wasn't nice talking to someone, Makoto never said it was.

As she picked up her pace, a hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her into a small alcove between two large buildings. Despite being a great street fighter and having amazing strength, she couldn't break out of the grip.

"I'm only going to say this once, so listen up. I've waited for ten years; ten long years to do this and I am defying every rule ever placed upon me doing this, but I can wait no longer to release her. I hold the secret of your past. Why you fight so well, what is missing inside you, what makes your heart ache. Come to Japan, to this address where you will receive directions upon where to go next. This is only if you wish to know the things that have been bothering you." 

The woman handed her a small business card and left, leaving Makoto behind, thunderstruck. 

Slowly, Makoto opened the airport door. She had never been up on airports, but she had gotten over her fear of planes a while ago, though they still made her nervous. She'd had to leave it behind in order to get around to the other street tournaments.

Up on the electronic billboard that announced the flights, she scanned for one to Japan. _Flight 271, __China__ to __Japan__. Leaves at _3:30_. She checked her watch. _3:00_. If she wanted that flight, she would have to hurry and get a ticket. She would have to spend the money she just won to buy one though. She didn't have all that much in way of cash because she hadn't planned to leave China for at least a year, earning up funds to go the unofficial but greatest street tournament to be held in the U.S. the next year._

"May I help you?"

"I'd like a ticket to Japan."

"There is only one time today at 3:30. Would you like that flight?"

Makoto sighed. "Yes."

"That will be $450, please, for coach. How would you like to pay?"

"Cash." While Makoto dug in her army bag that she would sling over her shoulder when she walked, the clerk asked, "What is the name?"

"Kino. Kino Makoto."

There was the sound of long fake nails clicking on a keyboard for a moment. Makoto had just found her envelope of money and straightened up when the clerk surprised her.

"There is a ticket already paid for in full for you. It is a one-way ticket, a reserved seat in first class. Is this correct?"

Makoto looked surprised, but the image of the dark-skinned woman flashed before her eyes. How had she known that Makoto would accept her proposal? "Yes, that's correct."

The lady smiled at her and handed her the ticket. "Second terminal on your left."

When Makoto boarded the plane and was led to the first class department, she was dumbfounded anew. She had never flown first class before and had no idea what to expect. There were four other people flying with her, none she recognized. She was vaguely disappointed that the olive woman was not there. 

"Here is your seat. Would you like some champagne?" asked the stewardess.

Makoto shook her head. What was with the strange woman? How had she known that the brown-haired woman would want a window seat? How had she paid for first class? How had she known she would accept? In all her 24 years of life, Makoto had never met such an enigma before.

Why had she done this? It was a simple answer, really. She couldn't help it. The questions that had plagued her for ten years could be answered now. The woman had said she had waited ten years and wouldn't wait any longer. _Ten years for her, ten years for me_, she thought. _There's something in the number ten._

Drowsily, she put her head against the window and fell asleep. For the first time in ten years, she dreamed. She hadn't dreamed at all since that night, ten years ago. It all came down to ten.

She was dressed again strangely, like the last time which she remembered vividly. She attacked the barrier physically, but it simply repelled her. She gave a cry of frustration. She wanted with all her mind, heart, and soul to break through that barrier. A man in strange armor appeared to her left, his arms crossed and watching the barrier angrily. 

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice echoing dully.

"You cannot break the barrier, not by yourself. You have to have the others with you," he said, not looking at her. His midnight black hair fell over his rather cold, royal blue eyes.

"What others?"

Finally he turned to her and his eyes were no longer cold. They were pleading and sad. "She's waiting for you. You must hurry." Then everything began to fade away.

Makoto was jerked back to reality rather abruptly with someone's hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see a man with long brown hair and chocolate eyes staring at her compassionately yet worriedly. "Are you all right? You were screaming."

"I was screaming?" she repeated, surprised.

He sat down next to her. "It was low, so only the other four of us heard. We thought it best to wake you."

"Oh. Thank you. Do you all know each other?"

The man smiled and looked back at the other three people, all males she realized. "Yes. We've known each other since we were children." His face clouded with worry.

"What's the matter?" She felt it prudent to ask, since he had been kind to her, though she felt concerned deep in her gut anyway.

"We are going to visit a friend of Kris's."

"Who's Kris?"

The man leaned back so she could see and pointed to a tall, white haired man. She didn't understand why he had white hair, since he looked old not in the least. She smiled and turned back to the person sitting beside her. "K or C?"

"K."

"Aren't the girls the ones who spell Kris that way to distinguish themselves from the guys?"

Kris's ears turned red in embarrassment and he looked away. The other three males guffawed loudly at him. "Normally yes, but he wanted to be different, I guess. Either that or his mother was absolutely positive he was girl and already signed the birth certificate ahead of time.

"Actually, we call him that, but his given name on his birth certificate is Keagan. He prefers Kris. Personally I don't see why." He shrugged. "Kris is his middle name."

Makoto laughed. "I see. And your names are?"

He smiled. "Mine's Nick."

"Like the insect, Nat."

He glared at Kris, who had the temerity to make such a jibe. "Excuse me, it's Nick, NOT Nat. Just because they rhyme somewhat…" Makoto found herself quite comfortable in the atmosphere with these men, but she found the empty space in her heart that knew something like this was missing from her life. 

He caught her wandering attention again when he pointed to another of his comrades with long blonde hair tied back with a green band. "That's Zale." He turned around and waved. His eyes sparkled like an emerald sea, with a deep seated humor that wasn't often displayed in public, she guessed.

"And the last of us, with the short blonde hair, is Jace." 

A hand waved at her, but he didn't turn around.

"So who are you?" he asked, looking back at her.

She debated what name to say. Should she say her name or her street fighter name? "Makoto."

"Nice name."

"So why are you going to Japan?"

The mood instantly turned sober. Nick leaned back in his seat. "Kris has a friend that collapsed into a coma or something like it ten years ago when they were in high school together. He barely had the money to keep them from killing him, just putting him asleep. He was convinced that he could come back. Now me, Jace, and Zale haven't met him, but Kris dragged us all around the world, looking for something that would give him the money to keep supporting him. There was no reason for his collapse; he was in perfect health, so we heard. He was studying to be a doctor himself. Anyway, five years ago, Kris found a bank account that was left under a strange name to him. It contained all the money he'd need for what he wanted to do, so he's been doing that until now. 

"Yesterday, he got a call in the U.S., where he was working (he owns a chain of banks, you know), saying that his friend has taken a turn for the worse. They have to restrain him in the bed because he sometimes thrashes about and when he does, he thrashes about right off the bed. He nearly broke his arm when he fell off. His muscles have atrophied so they can't soften his fall. Now we're going to meet him for the first time and see what's wrong."

She was silent for a moment. "What was the bank account name under? Just curiosity, you understand."

Nick looked at his friends and they looked back at him. Something unspoken seemed to pass between them. "We'd rather not tell at the moment. After all, we just met you." Kris's voice was unexpectedly deep and radiated a ring of authority.

She shrugged. "Okay. I can understand that."

A male flight attendant entered through the door leading to the coach class and brought a tray for the men. He took one look at her and gasped. She raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"Jupiter!"

The four men looked at her sharply. She shrugged. "Yes?"

"I saw you fight! You're so awesome! I wish I could do something like you do! You're unbeatable! Can I have your autograph?"

Makoto looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Not right now. Maybe later." _When hell freezes over. She didn't want publicity, she wanted answers._

The man moved away, a little disappointed and more than enormously awestruck. She looked out the window, but the stares of the males finally made her look at them. "What?"

"Jupiter?" repeated Jace, who had finally turned around and looked at her. His eyes were a pale blue color, a shade darker than the sky.

She shrugged again. "Look, I'm a street fighter. No one uses their real names unless they are on the top rung of the ladder. I'm not, though I haven't been defeated since I started, six years ago, when I graduated high school. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention my name."

They exchanged glances and nodded. Makoto looked back out the window and her eyelids began to droop, but she didn't sleep. Maybe the frustration she felt when she had attacked those bubble like things in her dream was what made her always fighting better people. 

She slowly slipped into REM and she dreamed again. A woman in a white dress with a crown on her head stood next to a blonde-haired girl with a crystal in her hand. She too wore a white dress. She smiled when she looked at Makoto. 

"Jupiter…"

She woke with a start, the jolt of the plane informing of her of its intent to land. She was buckled in her seat, but Nick was not next to her. He must have buckled her seatbelt for her before he moved again. He was reading a magazine, sitting next to Kris. Zale and Jace sat in the row ahead of them, an empty seat between them. 

She attempted to stretch, but found it rather difficult with the tight seatbelt. It was night, the buildings windows winking light around her. Makoto felt a feeling of homecoming and a terrible, sickening sadness. She hadn't been back to Japan in five years, not since the last big tournament that had been held there. Why did she feel as if there was something she was supposed to do there?

When the plane bumped to a stop, she undid her seatbelt, grabbed her bag from the compartment above her head, and bolted for the door to escape the man who wanted her autograph. She breathed in the night air, letting the wind blow her hair back from its restricting ponytail.

"Makoto!"

She turned and watched as Nick jogged up to her, followed more sedately by his friends. She couldn't dismiss the feeling that they weren't telling her everything. "Where are you going?"

She shrugged. "Check into a hotel for the night and…go where I'm supposed to in the morning."

"Huh? Why did you come to Japan anyway?"

"To find some answers," she said flatly.

"Do you want to share a room with us? It wouldn't be a problem, you know," he said eagerly.

She looked at him in surprise, but shrugged. "Okay."

As they walked to the airport exit, Kris hissed to his friend, "What's wrong with you? Why do you want her to come with us so badly?"

Nick checked to make sure she couldn't hear him and then turned to him, his social attitude disappearing in an instant to the reserved and rather grim man he was. "Because of 'Jupiter'."

"I see we're thinking along the same lines," said his friend Zale.

"Why did you tell we didn't know Mamoru?" asked Jace, watching the back of Makoto closely.

"Call it a feeling."

The four men walked on in silence, watching the tall brunette.

End of Part 1


	3. Part 02

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 2_

"Is something the matter?"

Makoto turned around and met a stormy pair of gray eyes. She shrugged. "No, not really." She turned back to the window and watched as the night grew deeper. "I usually don't sleep all that much. Night is usually when I'm actually doing stuff and sleeping in the day."

"Because of street fighting?" Kris joined her at the window, looking out and his expression thoughtful.

"For the most part."

"If I may ask, why did you choose the name 'Jupiter' for your street fighting?"

Despite asking it as a casual question, Makoto could tell by the set line of his jaw that this was something that he really wanted to know. "I don't know really. When I first signed up and they asked my alias name, I just uttered the first thing that came out of my mouth. Jupiter happened to it."

"Do you know that Jupiter is the Roman name for the king of the gods who wielded lightning?"

"I didn't know before, but I do now."

"Do you like thunderstorms?"

She gave him a lopsided grin. "What's with all the questions?"

"Just answer it."

Makoto frowned at his commanding tone. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not."

They stood in silence for a while, each watching the city. Finally he turned to her. "You should get some sleep." 

Makoto stood by the window long after he was gone, thinking. There was something definitely wrong with this picture, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She felt as if she'd met them before, but that it had been long ago. Her frown deepened. That woman had better be answering a lot of questions for her and the answers had better be satisfactory. After ten years, she couldn't settle for less.

When Nephrite awoke, sunlight was streaming into his room. He sat up and threw the covers off of him. Today was the day that they would go see Mamoru…Endymion. What had happened that made him so violent in his sleep? What had changed? And what was with the girl?

There was a peremptory knock on his door and he smiled. He knew who that was. Opening the door, he let his fellow Shitennou in. "Kunzite, it's rather early."

Kunzite, or rather Kris for the sake of Makoto and getting some answers, sat down in a chair near the door. Jadeite, Jace, and Zoisite, Zale, entered a moment later, they smiling at him. He closed the door behind them.

"I found Makoto up last night, staring out the window. I asked her why she chose the name Jupiter and she told me it just popped into her head when they asked for her pseudonym for street fighting. She doesn't know why."

"Where is she going today?" asked Zoisite.

"I don't know. We need to keep our eye on her, though. Last night proved that to me."

"Why? What happened?"

Kunzite rubbed his eyes and looked at Jadeite. "She acted like Jupiter, from the Silver Millennium. Do you remember when I had first met her? Do you remember that conversation?"

"Which one?" questioned Jadeite, his brows drawn together in thought.

"The one where I asked her questions, she then asked me why I was asking them all, I told her to answer it, and she frowned at me and said she'd rather not."

"Oh, I remember now. So?"

"We had that exact same conversation last night."

There was silence. "How do we know that she really isn't Jupiter and she's just faking as if she isn't, as farfetched as that might seem," said Nephrite.

"I have no doubt that she isn't faking. There would be no way for her to be traveling around the world doing street fighting and being a Senshi at the same time. She has too much loyalty to her."

"What happened to the princess?" asked Zoisite quietly.

"I don't know, but the prince's condition is connected to her. So whatever is happening to her is affecting him," Kunzite said grimly.

Usagi woke with a sigh. She had spent ten years in this place with nothing to break up the monotony about it, though she had spent most of her years talking with the Queen and learning all about the history that was a part of her.

She crawled out of bed, part of her reveling that there was no set time she had to rise. However, the only thing in the closet was dresses. Sometimes she missed just pulling on a pair jeans and a t-shirt. 

Trying to get the pale pink dress on, she stumbled back into the dresser. Something fell and she picked it up. It was a picture she hadn't ever noticed before. _It's more of a very small painting. There was her and the man, Endymion, next to her. Her heartstrings pulled for her even though she'd never met him before, she still felt as if she loved him and would always love him. Just behind them was what Queen Serenity called the Senshi. There was the Inner Senshi with four other men. Just behind them was the tall Outer Senshi. In her arms she held a black cat with a crescent moon on its forehead. On the shoulder of the orange Senshi a white cat sat. Everyone was smiling and she felt a happy feeling welling up inside her. It had taken ten years to remember, but she had gotten all her memories back. All except a few were just like someone had told her a story and there was no strong emotions connected to them, but a few, a simple few, were as strong now as they were then, such as this picture taken a few weeks before Metallia's attack._

She sighed again and left the room. Even after being there as long as she had, she was always struck at how beautiful the palace was. She went out to the garden and twirled and twirled around, an enormous smile plastered on her face. She stopped as she saw the ever-present bubbles. 

Tears came to her eyes. What had happened to her family? What about her friends? What had happened at her school? What had happened? How were the reincarnated Senshi doing? Who were they? Did they like school, hate it like her? Did they like to shop, eat ice cream? Were they enjoying their lives?

A hand was placed on her shoulder and Usagi looked into the eyes of her mother. "Hello."

She gestured and Usagi followed her. "There are two things that are passed down the line of Serenity." They sat down at a table that Usagi had begged to have outside since it was so beautiful.

"What are those?"

She held up a shining crystal, the Ginzuishou. "This and this." She took off her crown and handed it Usagi. She gasped as the crystal settled in her other hand. "You need to know how to use this; your Senshi are coming together to bring you back to your world. You must show them who you are."

Usagi looked at the bubble barrier. She could feel the presence again. There was always a presence outside of it, but there was no malice in it. It was always gentle and loving. She wondered who it was; it had a familiar feel to it, but she couldn't quite place it.

"All right, I shall learn, mother."

End of Part 2

This was short, I know. But I feel the need to end it here.


	4. Part 03

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 3_

When Makoto woke up the next morning, it was with a contented but anxious feeling. As she got out of bed, she felt a sense of purpose, something she hadn't felt for a long time. She sighed deeply, but she was in no way backing down. She would find the house that the note said to go to and she would find her answers. She _had to._

The door opened and Nick entered, a rather stiff smile on his lips. "Where are you going today?"

Makoto picked up the business card that was always in easy reach of her hand and showed it to him. "To that address."

"Why don't we come with you? We will, but we have to stop to see Kris's friend."

"I don't think so. We barely know each other after all and I was born here, even though I wasn't back for six years. I know where I'm going."

"It's not that we're trying to show you where you're going, but…" He trailed off.

Makoto's eyebrow rose a bit. "You really want to come with me, don't you?"

He shrugged, an almost helpless look on his face as he struggled to put into words his reasons for wanting to go with her. She relented. "I guess so, but what I do probably won't mean a thing to you."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," he muttered under his breath as he left, something she was not intended to hear, she was sure. She frowned. Now what was that supposed to mean?

They were waiting for her in the main room of the rented room they stayed the night in. "Unfortunately, even though we are to accompany you, you must accompany us first. To the hospital to see my friend," Kris said.

"I'm not sure I can wait that long," she said. "This is very important to me, where I'm going."

"This is important to me," he told her warningly.

She sighed. It had been ten years; she could wait a few more hours surely, couldn't she? She had thought so, until they were settled in Zale's car, heading, at the speed limit, to the hospital. As they walked to the room, she was on the verge of telling them she was just going to leave when she saw the man.

She gasped. Even though he much gaunter and paler, it was still him. The man in her dream on the plane and the dream she'd had last night. The same one, meeting with the man and talking again. 

_"You must hurry. Evil forces draw near to harm her. I cannot do anything. For ten years I've been trapped here, tormented with the nearness of her and being unable to comfort, touch, or even see her."_

_She found herself growing senselessly angry at this evil force that was coming. "Who is she?"_

_"You know who she is."_

_And indeed, Makoto found that she knew. The blonde-haired girl in the white dress, who smiled like the sun and loved all she met. The girl who called to her for help and who she would give her life for, to protect._

"Makoto? Makoto!"

Makoto started and looked at Nick, who watched her almost suspiciously. She found herself breathing heavily and her eyes again snapped to the man who never moved, always breathed easily, in sleep. 

"What's the matter?" asked the distant voice of Jace. "You acted like you know him. Do you?"

It was so confusing. She felt as if she did, but long ago. Yet she'd seen him recently, but it was not him. She clutched her head in her hands. "I don't know," she cried softly. She took a deep breath and straightened after a moment, her eyes hard emeralds. "The only way to answer that question is to find my answers, the reason I came to Japan after six years and no plan to return in the near future before _she came."_

"Who?"

"You'll see if you 'accompany' me." She strode stiffly from the room and out to Zale's parked car. A moment later, the four men were there, watching her cautiously and with a gleam in their eyes. She didn't want to know the meaning of that gleam; she had too many questions as it was.

The house she came to was a relatively small house. It had a pale red roof with a large, stone wall around it. There was bronze gate that was closed with a very thick looking padlock. There was a garden inside that looked to be tended to lovingly. It was startlingly quiet.

Slowly Makoto got out of the car, the men following her example. She closed the door and pressed a ringing button on the wall on the right side of the gate. The brown door opened and a woman with long, dark blue hair stepped out, wearing a dark blue skirt and a white top with an apron over it. Makoto had the overwhelming thought that, while the clothing practically never changed, the woman had.

"Hello," she said, sounding neutral.

The woman walked closer to the gate. "Hello," was the wary reply.

Up close, the woman had dark circles under her eyes, a testament of long suffering grief and many nights crying. The tears had worn a path down her cheeks and under her eyes, like water wearing down rock.

"I was told to meet someone…around here. May we come in for a few minutes? I promise you we won't be here long."

She nodded and unlocked the gate. "My name is Tsukino Ikuko. And yours is?"

"Kino Makoto."

They entered the house, a somber group. In the living room, a tall man sat with dark brown hair reading a newspaper, graying much more than what Makoto should have thought he would look at his relatively young age, if it matched the woman's. Grief had made them both older, she decided. Whatever had happened had been so traumatic that it changed them even physically. She almost shuddered at the prospect.

Next to him, on the divan lounged a teenage man, verging on sixteen or seventeen, she guessed, perhaps more. With the grief aging everyone in the house, it was hard to tell ages. He had tan eyes, much more somber and suspicious than one should be at any age. He was a lanky fellow, practically sprawled across the green couch while the man who could only be his father sat in the matching chair next to one of the armrests.

"This is my husband Tsukino Kenji and my son Shingo."

The woman, Ikuko, had so quietly entered behind them that Makoto started nervously as she found the shorter woman standing next to her, which wasn't hard to do. She had had another massive growth spurt when she graduated high school. She had met very few adult men who topped her now. Nick did, as did the other three men, Jace nearly even with her though.

"Hello," she said dutifully, though in truth she was feeling the atmosphere in the house. It was full of sorrow and pain, a situation unresolved. Normally she wasn't psychic or anything of the sort, but even she could feel uneasy at the mental vibrations from the house. Something terrible and earth-shattering had happened.

Shingo stood up and he came to her chin, a not so surprising fact to her since he was quite lanky. "Hello. Who are you?"

His voice held slight suspicion hidden deeply. Makoto inclined her head toward him. "Kino Makoto."

"What do you do for a living, Miss Kino?" asked Kenji as he put down his paper, a very deep voice that seemed to be the age of father time though it gave the hint of being much younger years ago.

She shrugged. "The only thing that could be termed as a profession that I do, I guess, would be street fighting. I go all over the world and fight in tournaments. My pseudonym is Jupiter."

Shingo nodded. "I've heard of you. You're becoming quite famous in the fighting community." 

A spark was in his eyes, the same with his parents. There seemed to be a lightening in the atmosphere, a tad bit of…hope? Why were they hoping for something? And did they think she could provide it?

"You said you go all over the world?" began Ikuko. Rather cautiously, Makoto noticed.

"Yes."

"You haven't seen a blonde woman with a strange hairstyle of odangos with two twin streamers falling down to her knees or lower than that now, would you?"

Makoto started at the description. She knew that description and knew the girl they were referring to. The woman in her dreams. "I…can't answer that right now. I might have…might have seen her, but until I meet with the person who I came to meet with, I won't have any answers, not for me nor you."

Most of the hope dissipated, but not all. There was a lingering bit that refused to leave. Ikuko begged of them to sit down and fetched some tea. They did so, talking of other things instead of the mysterious girl and the woman Makoto was to meet, though it was forefront in all of their minds.

Finally, Makoto stood up and wandered to a shelf embedded in the wall. She had never sat down well for long periods of time. She had always had the feeling that she had a place to go and sitting wasn't taking her anywhere. _Maybe the reason I was always wandering over the world was not because of the championships, but because I was searching for the place that I needed to be. I never realized that place was the very place I left from._

She picked up a picture frame that contained four smiling people. Kenji and Ikuko looked much younger, Kenji have the barest strands of gray in his hair. Shingo himself looked to be no older than eight. And there she was, a much younger her, but still her. The girl in her dreams. The blonde girl who loved everyone, with the deep sapphire orbs staring at her with so much laughter and life. 

"Is this your daughter? Where is she now?" Makoto asked, never taking her eyes off the picture. Perhaps if she could find their daughter, she would be able to find why she occupied her dreams and why she felt such allegiance to such a small creature who looked so delicate.

The stiff silence behind her made her turn. The family stared at her. Slowly Shingo stood up and gently took the picture from her hand. "That's my sister, Usagi. She's been missing for ten years now."

"Ten years…" she whispered, her eyes going unfocused. "Why does everything come to ten? What does it all mean?"

A hand gripped her elbow and brought her back to the present. Her eyes locked with Nick's and she felt the presence of the olive woman for barely a moment. It was unmistakable. 

With a hurried 'excuse me', she burst out the door. The olive woman was nowhere in sight, but she hadn't left the tall woman bare-handed. On the pavement just inside the gate was a note. Slowly Makoto picked it up, feeling the stares of the four men behind her burning a hole in her back.

On the inside of the folded paper was a short sentence. _'Come to __Juuban__Park__ if you want your answers.' She turned around abruptly and stalked back into the house, seething with anger. How dare that woman! Leaving her clues like some kind of mad murderer leading on the police, taunting her! _

She snapped up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "I have to go now, to get my answers…and perhaps yours. I _will be back. I promise."_

They nodded, the Tsukino family, Ikuko's eyes shining with hope, Kenji and his son with suspicion and doubt. Slowly Makoto left the house and sat down in the front seat of the car while the men joined her. 

"To Juuban Park," was all she said to them and her set jaw line prevented any kind of question.

End of Part 3


	5. Part 04

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at GalaxyJM@aol.com. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 4_

When Makoto stalked into the empty park, fury was in her every step and she was mad as hell. She had been waiting ten years for something, just like the olive woman, but at least _she hadn't been going around and making a nuisance of herself to hard working folk. And it wasn't just her now, it was the men behind her too, who walked four abreast. _

She was about to rave off when she got to the center of it with no sign of the mysterious woman when she stopped dead at the sight before her. A woman with short black hair turned and looked at her and it was as if her violet eyes read her very soul. A perfectly shaped eyebrow rose at her appearance.

A little farther off two other women stood conversing quietly. One with shoulder length, dark _blue hair. She wore a white lab coat and black slacks. In her jacket pocket was a pair of glasses. Next to her was a light blonde woman. Her hair went down to the middle of her back and waved slightly in the breeze. Her eyes were a sky blue color, much lighter than the girl's in her dreams. _

On the right side of the violet-eyed woman were two other women. One with very short, sandy-blonde hair. Her eyes were a green, like her own, but not as deep an emerald. Who could only be her partner stood beside her, aqua green hair blowing in the breeze. Both wore rather suspicious expressions when they saw her. 

Nick walked up to stand beside her and the groups there watched each other, for there were distinct groups. Makoto and the men, the two pairs of women, and the loner black one. 

"I see you are all here," said the voice that Makoto would remember for the rest of her life. 

The olive woman walked amidst the groups, drawing all their attention like moths to the flame. She turned to Makoto. "I see you have brought some friends. That is well, since they are part of your answers."

"What answers?" asked a relatively soft voice. Makoto glanced around to see who had spoken and it was the…She looked closely at the name tag. Doctor Mizuno. 

"Makoto has been waiting ten years for answers to her life; I'm sure you all have questions that I will answer. One why I brought you all specific people here. Only four of you know who I am, though two other might have an inclination."

She inclined her head to the men behind Makoto and all eyes turned to them. Makoto whirled, anger swirling in her green orbs. Before anyone could register what she was going to do, she hauled her fist back and punched Nick right on the jaw. "How dare you not tell me you knew this woman!" she hissed.

Nick rubbed his jaw. "You never told me who you were going to meet; and I don't know _who she is. I know _what _she is."_

"Then what is she?" asked a light, rather cheerful voice. 

Makoto looked over to the woman on the other side of Doctor Mizuno. Her eyes narrowed. A memory was trying to surface in her mind, but it refused to be locked onto. What was it…?

"Calm down," the olive woman said.

"Calm down? You expect them to calm down when you haven't even explained anything yet?" asked the sandy-haired woman scornfully.

"I will, but you must calm down."

Taking a deep breath, Makoto crossed her arms, feeling the anger that seemed so natural. Ever since she had taken up street fighting, she had been rather laid back about everything except fighting, but even then, it was different. It was like she was calculating; she never got angry, no matter what insults her opponents might throw at her. She never got really angry outside of fighting either. She felt better now that she had that anger back; she'd always had anger when she fought before and it felt like a cleansing now.

"Six of you here already know what you are, but four of you do not. You four have been living the past ten years in regular lives, but have the feeling something is missing or out of place. It is. But first, let me introduce to you someone who regrettably can't be here in person."

An image flickered beside her and a transparent woman appeared, dressed in that strange garment she always found herself in when she was in that place with the bubbles. Only the newcomer's was predominantly purple. She was tall, reaching to just below Makoto's height. Her eyes were a pale violet. She smiled at them. There were wings on her shoulders replacing regular shoulder pads. There was a crystal type thing in the center of a bow on her chest. She had boots that came to her knees and tied with laces all the way to the top.

"This is Sailor Saturn. She is presently indisposed. Uranus, Neptune, please join us."

The sandy-haired woman and her partner reacted unusually. They straightened and pulled out the strangest looking pens that Makoto had ever seen. They held them aloft, crying out the strangest phrases.

"Neptune Planet Power, Make-UP!"

"Uranus Planet Power, Make-UP!"

Multi-colored lights surrounded them and when it stopped, they wore the strange garments as well. The sandy-colored woman's was predominantly dark blue and yellow, while her partner's was aqua and blue.

"What's going on?" cried Doctor Mizuno, who seemed to have the hardest time accepting the strangeness. Makoto had long accepted the strangeness, because she no longer paid it any attention. It was just one more roadblock to sit through to get her answers. She didn't care about the strange people, just her answers and the sweet girl in her dreams.

The olive woman raised her hand above her head and cried, "Pluto Planet Power, Make-UP!"

When the multi-colored lights faded, she wore the strange garments as well. Maroon and black her colors. "I am Sailor Pluto, guardian of the Gate of Time."

She then proceeded to tell the most incredulous story Makoto had ever heard, about a Moon Kingdom being destroyed, about a Sailor Moon and such. During this time, two homeless cats had joined their group, but by the way they looked at them, Makoto thought that they might understand what was being said. She turned back to the olive…no, Sailor Pluto.

"However, there was no Sailor Moon. That possibility was wiped out because of my carelessness. The future that came to pass is this one, in which Sailor Moon, the reincarnated Princess of the Moon, was kidnapped and never became it."

"Who was it?" she asked curiously.

"A Tsukino Usagi."

"Her? She went missing ten years ago without a trace!" Makoto protested.

"And each of you had a vision that day ten years ago of a dark place only filled with bubbles surrounding something you cannot see and have reoccurring dreams now. You feel compelled to destroy this bubble barrier with all your soul, but have not succeeded." 

They all nodded, Makoto included. She wondered briefly how the men were taking this, but she dared not take her eyes off Pluto. Despite the wildness of the tale, she felt a ring of truth to it. It rang much truer to her than many other things she had been told in her life. 

Suddenly she held out her gloved hand and four pens appeared. "It is time for the Princess's Inner Guard and Court to awaken. Mercury, Mars, Venus," She looked straight at Makoto, "and Jupiter."

As if by some command, Makoto stepped forward as did the three other women not in strange clothing did. As each touched the pen, images flashed in their minds, or at least Makoto's. She saw a beautiful palace, saw herself in a beautiful gown, saw her embrace a gorgeous looking man. Felt lightning coursing through her, but giving her no pain.

When she opened her eyes, she was dressed in the strange garment that she always wore in the bubble place. The word 'fuku' entered her head and she knew that that was what this thing was called. A fuku.

She looked to the others and the black-haired woman wore red and purple. She did a double-take. "Wasn't your hair really short?"

The woman grabbed her hair and noticed that it flowed down to her butt. "I just…how did that happen?" she demanded in a strident voice of someone used to getting her way.

Makoto looked to the others. The doctor was all in blue, dark and light. Her hair was… "Your hair got shorter," she said.

A gloved hand flew up and touched the blue locks. "You're right. How did that happen?"

She turned to the last of them, orange, yellow, and a sparse bit of dark blue in her fuku. She seemed the least bit disturbed about it. Her hair had also grown, but not that much. Around the length of the red one; she appeared not to care.

"What's going on?" demanded the black-haired woman.

"First, I think it would be beneficial to introduce yourselves," Pluto said, looking at the other fuku covered women who had…changed…before them. 

They nodded. "I'm Tenou Haruka. Also Senshi of the sky, Uranus."

"I am Kaioh Michiru, Senshi of the sea, Neptune."

They looked at Makoto. She shrugged. "Name's Kino Makoto. And I'm…um…"

"You are the Senshi of lighting and earth, Jupiter."

"That's my street fighter name, but…whatever."

Pluto turned to the black-haired woman. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and said, rather haughtily, "Hino Rei, High Priestess of the Hikawa Shrine. I'm…" She trailed off.

"Senshi of fire and war, Mars," supplied the gate guardian.

"I'm Mizuno Ami, a doctor at the local hospital," the shy woman said. She simply looked at Pluto. 

"Senshi of ice and wisdom, Mercury."

"Well, I'm Aino Minako," said the cheerful blonde. "I must be the Senshi of something…"

Pluto smiled a little. "Yes, you are. Senshi of love, Venus."

"Cool."

"So what do these men have to do with this?" asked Uranus, rather pessimistically. Saturn had yet to say a word, though she did nod and smile at them when they became…Senshi.

"They are the Earth Prince's protectors. Why don't you introduce yourselves?"

They stepped back from Makoto as she turned around. Nick was no longer looking as if he desired social contact, grim faced and serious. They were all different than the people she had met and in some ways it was good. She had known they were different and it was a relief to have this mystery solved as well.

Kris snapped his fingers and the other three men stood to attention. A flash of light and they all were dressed in similar uniforms. "I am the leader of Endymion's generals and guards, Kunzite, previously High King of the Middle East in the Silver Millennium."

Nick crossed his arms over his chest. "I am Nephrite, previously High King of the North American division in the Silver Millennium. One of the generals and guards of the Prince Endymion."

"I am also sworn to protect my liege and friend, Endymion," Jace began. "I am Jadeite, previously High King of the Far East in the Silver Millennium."

Zale's green eyes glittered slightly as he said, "Previously High King of the European division under Prince Endymion, Zoisite. I am sworn to protect him as well, as his general, guard, and friend."

"Was the man in the hospital Endymion?" Makoto asked in a moment of clarity. 

"Yes, that is our liege. His civilian name is Chiba Mamoru."

"I heard of him," Ami exclaimed. "He's at the hospital in a care unit. I tried to waken him since everyone told me to, but I'm sorry. I couldn't," she whispered.

"What are your civilian names?" asked Neptune, less belligerent than her partner.

Kunzite nodded. "My name in this life is Keagan Kris MacNeal."

"My name is Nick Michael Canter."

"Jace Daniel Taencer."

"Zale James Indiano."

"Now I will explain why I brought you all here." Makoto and the others turned back to Pluto. "We must save the Princess. To do this, you must all work together. I will help if I can, but I must also watch the Time Gate. I am violating just about every rule that has ever been imposed upon me by doing this, but I cannot wait any longer. Luna and Artemis will help you if I cannot be here. Venus, you are to care for Artemis. For now, until she can assume her guardian, Luna will stay with you, Makoto."

Makoto looked down at the black cat, who had walked up to her. She looked back at Pluto. "I can't take care of a cat. I'm always on the move and besides, if I stay here, I shall have to live in a hotel and they don't take cats."

"Don't worry; there is place set up for you."

Makoto jerked back from the cat in front of her. If she hadn't been watching her, she would be sure that she was going crazy because cats _didn't _talk. "You can talk."

"Of course I can. So can Artemis. Now we must hurry and formulate a plan."

Artemis jumped onto Minako's shoulder and draped himself across it. The woman looked a little nervous at having a talking cat near her, but she was overcome by his soft white fur because she began stroking him. He purred and Luna threw him a disgusted look, if it was possible for a cat to do that.

"It's all right, we have a place here, if you'd like to stay with one of us," Jace, or rather Jadeite, said to her.

Makoto put her hand to her head. It was beginning to throb. She had wanted answers and she had gotten them. She shouldn't complain about whether she understood it at all. And everything she had been told rang true. She knew they weren't lying to her; she felt it deep in her bones. 

"Saturn will not be helping you; as I've said earlier, she is indisposed and I _cannot_ interfere with that. Now, let's return to our respective homes to get some sleep."

Makoto, seeing Uranus and Neptune touching their tiaras, did the same. She found herself in her baggy jeans and tank-top green shirt she had been wearing in the morning. Pluto did not change back. 

"We will meet in civilian at this park again tomorrow at noon and then you proceed with me where we may talk in private about our strategy to free the Princess and Prince."

"What's wrong with the Prince?" asked Minako.

"The Prince's life is tied with the Princess's. It is the nature of their soulmate bond. Let's leave."

And with that, everyone began to filter away in separate directions, leaving just Makoto and the men. She turned around to see them back to normal. They watched her with something closely akin to sympathy. She shook her head and let out a deep breath. 

"I need to sleep."

End of Part 4

Action will be coming soon, I hope. Bad guy is returning. I know it was a lot of talking in this, but it was rather imperative. Just slog through this and make it through to the next part, where things really get interesting. I will not be switching to Usagi's point of view much, just fair warning. Most of this will be in Makoto's pov, though there will be a few points later on that are not. You will know which ones. Ja ne!


	6. Part 05

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 5_

Doctor Mizuno was by no standards a narrow-minded person, but she had a great trouble believing in this new concept, 'magic' and Sailor Senshi. She sighed and her long time friend, Minako, turned to her with a curious look. 

"What's the matter?"

"I just don't quite believe all that has happened."

For a time, Minako was silent. Characteristically, she thought deeply before answering. For the life of her, Ami couldn't understand why her friend had been so cheerful when they had been talking with those other people, though it seemed to be quite natural for her to be so cheerful. Minako hadn't ever been that cheerful in years and she always seemed to weigh her words. It seemed that being around 'Sailor Pluto' had changed her drastically. Now Ami found it hard to imagine Minako seriously, though she'd been serious, hardly laughing, for many years until now. What had happened three years to make her so serious she wouldn't even tell Ami.

"I do, strangely enough. It rings true."

"I don't deny that it sounds true, but still, it sounds unbelievable at the same time."

"Can you explain the dreams any other way?"

"…No."

They walked in silence for a while until they heard voices ahead of them. Automatically they slowed their pace, but even though they did, they still heard the voices clearly over the silence. It was that of the four men and brown-haired woman, Kino Makoto.

"Makoto? Are you even speaking to us?" Ami thought it might have been Jace.

There was silence.

"Oh don't sulk. It isn't like you." That was definitely Nick.

"Don't you _dare say something isn't like me," she hissed and Ami could imagine the woman whirling around in anger. "I thought I knew who you were, but the way you were was just an act. You know nothing about me the same I know nothing about you!"_

"Well this is me so get used to it." Ami was struck by the rudeness until he whispered, "Please. I'm sorry we had to lie and pretend toward you, but we had no choice, believe me. I had no wish to do that, but it was necessary. We didn't know if you were a Senshi, in which case we needed to talk. We were pretty sure you were, you just didn't know, but it wouldn't do to show who we were to you in case you really weren't a Senshi."

Makoto didn't say anything and there was the sound of thumping, heavy footfalls taking her farther away from the men, who continued to talk. Ami and Minako exchanged glances and continued listening, though Ami felt a bit guilty about eavesdropping.

"Well we sure pissed her off," said Jace in English. Minako, who had lived in England for a while, had no need to translate it for Ami, because Ami had studied just about every language in the world, though she was most proficient in English besides her native Japanese.

"I didn't hear you giving any other suggestions or courses of action," retorted Nick sourly.

"You really like her, don't you?" This was from Zale in a contemplative tone. Ami could practically see his thoughtful look and that thought led to how handsome he was. She blushed and Minako shot her an amused look, knowing what the good doctor was thinking about.

"Well, how could I not? You know how I felt about Jupiter in the past."

By now the two women were straining their ears to hear them, though not because the voices were drifting away. It was still quite clearly said, but even Ami was not immune to such a juicy bit of information.

"Does that extend to Makoto now?" The voice was rumbling and Ami had no trouble placing Keagan's deep bass.

"Yes and no. Much more now that we got to Japan and she met with Pluto. She's acting like Jupiter did, but I…I still love Jupiter how she used to be."

"Well we remembered our past clearly, like crystal, when we were three to five," remarked Jace. "We've always known what we were and what we had to do and what had gone on before. She hasn't and she's just learned the person who she's been looking for is her princess and in dire circumstances. You know what Jupiter was like in the Silver Millennium; it would have been tearing her apart. Who's to say she isn't feeling like it now? Also, maybe she just hasn't remembered anything, including you two's relationship."

"But you remember the day the Moon Kingdom fell. You know what was happening that day," said Nick soberly.

"Yeah, your—"

There was the sound of an elbow being slammed into some soft surface and a rush of air expelled. There was a mutter that could have come from anyone, but Ami rather thought it was Zale. After a rather long time of silence, they heard the unmistakable tones of Makoto.

"Are you coming?" she asked irately in Japanese.

"Yes, we are," replied Keagan in the same language.

They drew farther away, the conversation disappearing slowly from their ears. Ami and Minako looked at each other and Minako whistled softly. "Didn't know about that, that's for sure."

Ami nodded and they proceeded to walk in silence to their respective homes.

She entered the park in casual attire since she was not due at the hospital that day. Ami easily spotted Minako who was in animated conversation with someone. When she drew closer, Ami could see it was Hino Rei. 

"Hello, Miss Hino," she said as she approached.

The woman rolled her eyes and said, "Just call me Rei and it's not—" She cut herself off and looked away. 

"It's not what?"

"Nothing."

Minako and Ami exchanged glances. There was a story there, for sure, and Ami knew as if it was a sure as a rock that Minako would be the one prying it out of Rei. There was a rather uncomfortable silence until they were approached by two other people. 

"Hello," greeted Michiru. Haruka nodded at them. They did not appear to hold any of the suspicion of yesterday.

"Good day, Miss Kaioh, Miss Tenou," replied Ami cordially. 

"Just Michiru and Haruka," said the blonde with a smile.

Ami blushed. "It's just that it's conditioning. I always greet my patients like that."

"It's all right, Ami-chan," said Minako fondly. "We forgive you."

Easy laughter filtered around the group, though their conversation was relatively muted considering how many people were at the park. They certainly had no wish to be overheard. 

"Follow me."

They turned and saw Sailor Pluto, dressed as a civilian. She wore a gold overcoat over a green t-shirt and black pants. Her ruby red eyes blinked rather benignly at them though there was a glint like glass deep in their centers.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others to arrive first?" Ami questioned quietly.

Sailor Pluto shook her head. "They arrived earlier, arguing at the top of their lungs." The older woman rolled her eyes. "I already took them to the meeting place to get them out of public. They're probably still arguing amongst themselves. Call me Meioh Setsuna when we are not Soldiers."

They nodded and followed silently in her wake. Ami and the others heard them long before they saw the men and Makoto. Setsuna cursed under her breath and broke out into a run, leaving the door open.

They had come to a large, open warehouse. Carefully Ami stepped in and looked around. There were a few chairs, a table, and one rather battered loveseat. There were boxes filling the edges of the room. A metal staircase led to a catwalk high above.

In the center of the room, of course, stood the four men and Makoto. Setsuna was in the middle of berating them when the five of them entered. Haruka crossed her arms and watched.

Finally Minako broke in. "Setsuna-san, why such a need for secrecy?"

Her shoulders were tight and taunt as she turned around to the blond woman. "We must be careful. If the enemy hears even a wisp of a Senshi, we'll be up to our ears in youma, daemons, and whatever else he might think up. It is imperative that _no one knows who and what we are. With these five arguing about it at the top of their lungs it is a wonder the entire block doesn't know who and what we are by now."_

Makoto glared at Setsuna and her hands clenched into fists. "Look, it was _you_ who came to me! I didn't ask for this! You'll just have to deal with a few questions that you refuse to answer. I'll just leave."

Setsuna looked at her with calm eyes. "You wouldn't leave."

The brown-haired woman opened her mouth to dispute it and closed it without a word. It was apparent from the sullen and rebellious look on her face that Setsuna spoke true. 

"What must we discuss?" Ami asked to break the silence.

"You must find a way to reach the princess, break her seal, and help the prince."

"Can you give us any tips on how to do that?" Rei's voice behind Ami was filled with sarcasm, as if she knew that Setsuna would say no.

Setsuna shook her head. "I've already meddled too much as it is. I cannot help you anymore."

With that, the woman left the warehouse and the people still there were left staring at each other. Minako stepped forward and took charge, which surprised Ami a bit. She was never usually the leader type, though they both knew she could be if she wanted to.

"We have to find a way to reach this princess. Since the only time we ever see this place is in our dreams, we have to do something _then_. We will have to arrange a time some day soon when to get together. When we go to sleep, we'll hold hands. Hopefully, we should end up together as a group near the bubble barrier and we can break it open."

Keagan gave her an approving look tinged with something else. Minako gave him a sidelong glance, but otherwise ignored him. Ami hid her smile. She knew Minako liked the tall man, but had had enough bad experiences to be cautious around him.

"Agreed," Haruka said. "However, there are a few things Michiru and I need to take care of in our daily lives, so we'll meet in…a week's time at our home. Here is the address. We'll do this experiment then."

Everyone nodded and the pair left quietly. Zale slid quietly up to her side, startling her. "Would you walk with me, Mizuno-san?"

Ami nodded and the two left. A backward glance showed Minako winking at her. Ami's cheeks burned, but she resolutely looked ahead. A few minutes of silence occurred before she decided to break it. "So, what did you wish to talk to me about?"

"May I call you, Ami, before I ask anything else?"

Ami finally looked up at him and into his deep green eyes, which were lighter than Makoto's. More like a sea green, she thought. "Yes, you may."

"Ami-chan, Setsuna-san told you that you are a Senshi. But do you remember it? Feel it inside? Or is it simply like someone telling you that you are something?"

Ami looked ahead and thought. "The truth, Zale-chan, is that it's both. I don't 'remember' anything about anything, but I don't feel as if someone just told me I am. I feel that I am inside myself, but I know nothing else."

He sighed, one laden with sadness, and she looked at him in curiosity. "Is there something wrong?"

Zale shook his head and ran his hand through his wavy blond hair. "Nothing."

"It isn't nothing, Indiano-san. I'm a doctor; don't try to fool me."

He opened his mouth to speak when he thrust her away from the road. A blast of purple light hit the pavement with a thundering crash. Ami looked up to see a man floating above them. His face was blank, but there was a cruelness, a coldness, about him that clutched at his shoulders and body like a tight cloak.

"Run, Ami-chan. Run!" cried Zale as his body brightened. A gray and green jacket formed. White gloves covered his slim hands and black boots that went up to his knees formed over his gray pants. On his shoulder awards and such were pinned, glinting off in the sun, most having a piece of zoisite stone embedded into it.

His hand glowed and an ice spear formed in his open palm. Zale placed his body in front of her and said in a dangerous voice, "I am the European Shitennou for Prince Endymion of Earth, second in command, Zoisite. For harming the prince and Princess of the Moon, Serenity, you will not escape my wrath."

The man simply smiled and thrust his palm out. Silver blue light gathered and pyramids of ice formed on the ground under his feet. With quick movements, he focused his fist toward the center of three consecutive ice pyramids. Like he had slammed it with a hammer, they shattered, the deadly ice shards flying at Zale and her. 

Ami almost screamed, but some instinct kept her quiet. Zale crossed his arms over his chest as the pieces of ice hit him. They ripped his uniform and dark spots of blood began to seep into the fabric.

"Ami-chan, RUN!" he grunted.

With a last look at him, she ran with all her strength. She heard Zale yell something and she looked back. A gasp wrenched from her throat and she tried to run faster. Behind her were three monsters, each uglier and deadlier than the last.

She knew where she was running to and she knew she couldn't go there. Straight into the public would only hurt them. She swerved down a side road that she knew would lead to the ocean. It was a road that wasn't traveled by any except her. 

Ami slipped and slid down the sand toward the beach. The youmas jumped and one caught her shoulder with steel claws. She fell, but her momentum down the slope was enough for the creature to be knocked off. Blood coated her shoulder and shirt, but she immediately got up and ran toward the water. 

As soon as her feet touched it, her body glowed and she was sucked deep down. But Ami felt no fear, for some reason. Her slacks and shirt dissolved into a light, ice blue dress. On her neck was a choker made of dark blue silk. Suddenly she was thrust toward the surface. 

Her face turned to the sun and her eyes closed. And she remembered.

_Mercury looked down from the sky and back at the charging youmas. As the Princess of Mercury, she shouldn't be in the battle, but as the ice Senshi, she should be there. _

_"Freezing Ring!" Her wrist glowed brightly and ice formed in a ring around it. She pointed her wrist to the monster and chunks of ice grew and flew at it. It surrounded it in a circle and froze it in its tracks._

_"Mercury, help Zoisite!"_

_Mercury's breath caught in her throat as Mars screamed at her to help her love. She turned to see sea green eyes and…_

Her body glowed and Ami felt the ice magic turning her into a Soldier. She landed on the beach and glared at the youmas running at her. "This is for the princess!" she screamed. "Freezing Ring!"

Like in her memory, the attack flew at them, surrounding the three small youmas. They screamed, but the sound was cut off when the ice froze around them. Mercury kicked out at the motionless statues, shattering them.

With a mental command, her computer appeared in her palm, leading her back the way she had come and back to the battle.

When she arrived, the battle was being fought hard, but her friends were on the losing side. For a moment, confusion filled her as she watched her sister Senshi. They weren't using their attacks; they weren't fighting like they were trained to do, except maybe Jupiter…

Then she it hit her and she remembered. _They _didn't remember, like she did. A blast of red light and they were all thrown down. Uranus and Neptune weren't there, neither was Saturn. Mercury knew Pluto would be at the Time Gate, so she wasn't worried there. But where were Uranus and Neptune?

"Stop!"

Her voice was just as effective as her ice magic. It froze every combatant on the battlefield and they looked up at her, standing on a tree limb and looking every inch the cold warrior she was over her element, ice and fog.

"How dare you attack my friends! Ice and fog will be your downfall, as I am Sailor Mercury! Diamond Dust!"

Sparkles of ice blue light circled her form. Her hand rose above her head and an ice corridor appeared around the man and his seven youma. Mercury brought her arm down in a horizontal arc and a thin blast of blue light erupted in its wake, flying unerringly at its target, a column of ice that had formed in the center of the corridor, and shattering it.

The man cursed and disappeared. The ice disappeared in sparkling lights, leaving wounded youma behind. Mercury's eyes narrowed. Though she was by far the least physical of the group, her anger nearly consumed her and she jumped down, kicking hard and punching the remaining five youma. Her hits were not as effective or deadly as the other Senshi, but they served long enough to stun her enemies while the rest of the Senshi moved in for the kill.

When the youma were but dust on the ground, Mercury, breathing heavily, turned. She had not noticed before, but she noticed now, the Shitennou there as well. Her eyes widened in shock and recognition at one in particular.

"Zoisite!"

His face broke into a broad, ecstatic smile as she ran to him. He twirled her around and around in his arms as Mercury alternated between laughing and crying in happiness. 

Finally he set her down and Mercury gave him passionate kiss. When she pulled away, her cheeks were flushed with bliss and her blue eyes sparkled. She turned away to greet the other Shitennou, who embraced her warmly as a sister or close friend. She remembered how close the prince, princess, Inner Senshi, and the Shitennou had gotten before the fall of the Moon Kingdom and it was a wonderful feeling to have it back again.

Mercury turned to her fellow Senshi, but Mars and Jupiter just stared at her suspiciously before walking away. She consoled herself that they just didn't remember. After all, they'd just met in this life. 

Minako walked up to her curiously, though she was a bit more withdrawn than usual. She smiled at her friend. Minako smiled back, somewhat hesitantly. "I'll see you tomorrow, then, Ami-chan? I'm afraid I must have some time alone to think."

She nodded and the blond walked away, slowly detransforming. Mercury sighed and Zoisite put an arm around her shoulders. She smiled up at him and he kissed her gently. They nodded at the other Shitennou and walked away. The three left, shook their heads, half in happiness, and half in sadness as they went their separate ways.

End part 5

I know Mercury doesn't have a Freezing Ring or Diamond Dust. These are copyrighted attacks from Legend of Dragoon. I don't own the game (actually I own the game but I didn't make it), Sony does and Playstation.

 For future reference, I'll probably use other attacks for them because I love them, though the way the Senshi use these magic attacks are different from the game.


	7. Part 06

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 6_

Minako stirred her tea absently. So Ami had remembered…? Remembered what? Why had she so suddenly changed? What had happened to make her reserved friend jump into a stranger's arms as if she had known him for years before? And what on earth had changed her enough to passionately _kiss _Zale James Indiano?

She just didn't have any answers. Then she smiled wryly. Wasn't that the reason Kino Makoto had come? To find answers? Well, if she had found answers, Minako had found questions instead. There was also something about Hino Rei. What wasn't?

And those monsters…And Ami…Diamond Dust…

Why did they sound familiar? Why…Why period? She couldn't put all the things she wanted to know into questions. All it was, all that was left, was feelings of irritation or Why.

She sighed and paid for her drink, leaving the shop. Raindrops fell from sky and she looked up. The sky was clouding up and lightning arched across its expanse.

'Jupiter…'

Minako started and looked across the street. With the flash of lightning, it illuminated a figure across the street, the Senshi of Jupiter. She felt a wave of irritation. Hadn't Pluto said not to be in Senshi form in public? She dashed across the empty and silent street under the pouring rain.

But as soon as she got to the other side no one was there. She blinked, her wet hair sticking to her face and back. She looked all around her and finally noticed all the shops were closed, no one was on the street, hurrying to somewhere else with an umbrella or not. There were no cars coming. It was silent.

Minako shivered from the cold rain and something else. It was almost as if she was the only person left on Earth.

_'Star Children…'_

Minako whipped around to look around her again, but saw no one. Star Children? What was that? 

Thunder rumbled ominously; lightning flashed. Ahead of her again was Jupiter. She wasn't looking at Minako, or at anything Minako could see. She ran through the rain, her eyes never leaving that figure in front of her. 

When she reached a few inches near her, lightning flashed and she was gone. Minako began to grow frustrated. 

_'Thunder God…'_

"What do you want of me?" she suddenly cried out. 

_'Flame Shot…'_

"Leave me alone!"

_'Diamond Dust…'_

The last phrase caught her attention. Diamond Dust…That was what Ami had called out yesterday during that battle. What did it mean? Was whatever that happened to Ami going to happen to her? For a long moment, she hoped it did. Why did she feel jealous of her close friend? Because of the man she was dating?

Her thoughts roamed back to three years ago. If someone had asked her then if she was in love, she would have said without a doubt she had found her soulmate. What had changed that? The pain of finding out that her 'love' had cheated on her with another of her friends.

Chi had said she hadn't known they were dating, but Minako knew she was lying. All her friends had known she had been dating him, knew she had made plans to live the rest of her life with him. Minako had distanced herself from Chi after she had broken up with Ace. 

The rain pounded on her head, running down her cheeks with her tears. Why was it always her that was forced to bear her pain for the sake of someone else? Why weren't the people she had to bear for not the one she _wanted_ to bear for? Why wasn't that blonde girl here?

"WHERE ARE YOU?" she screamed, her voice broken by sobs in the empty street.

_'Presenting Princess Mina of Venus…'_

"Stop it! Stop IT!" Her hands clutched her wet hair and her eyes closed. Something was fighting to show her something, but she didn't want to know. Or did she? She let go and stopped fighting. Almost immediately her vision was taken over by things she didn't understand.

_The Princess Mina of Venus watched nervously as her princess, the one she was sworn to protect, walked gracefully down to meet her betrothed. She had known from the moment she had seen him, they were destined, but Serenity didn't know that. _

_A hand on her shoulder nearly made her jump out her skin and she whirled around. She breathed again when she saw who it was._

_"Lita.__ Don't do that!"_

_"Calm down, Mina. It's not as if she's going to trip and fall. She's more graceful than you sometimes."_

_Mina glared at her. "Princess Makoto, don't you dare try to pull that on me."_

_Lita cast her a sharp glance. "Be careful Mina. You know we aren't allowed to use those magic names. We're only supposed to use our use names, even among us."_

_Mina looked away. She knew that knowing magic names gave someone power over you. The rites of becoming Senshi had revealed each birth name among the eight of them and the royals. One had to be careful who one gave the real name to. So they had use names that everyone but the close-knit Senshi and royals of all planets except Earth knew._

_Raye and Amy walked up to her as well, ready for their calling. "Today, we'll meet the Earth Shitennou for the prince," said the Mercurial Princess. "What did you say they were like, Mina, when you would go down to fetch the princess?"_

_Mina sighed irritably. All of them, Amy included, had been asking her that question for days. "I already told you, I don't know. I only met Kunzite."_

_The dreamy look filled her face as she thought of the tall man she'd met on the Earth when she had gone to retrieve her wayward princess. Lita poked her and she started. _

_"Presenting Princess Amy of Mercury."___

_Amy stepped out, looking like calm waters, though Mina knew she was nervous. Like calm waters, it hid deeper pools of churning emotions inside._

_"Presenting Princess Raye of Mars."___

_Raye put on a bold face and stepped out from the doorway that Mina was peering from behind. _

_"Presenting Princess Lita of Jupiter."___

_Lita winked at her and strode forward, graceful on the lighter gravity of the Moon. It was well known that the heaviest gravity was on Jupiter, though Earth was a close second._

_"Presenting Princess Mina of Venus."___

_Mina took a deep breath and walked flawlessly to the stone dais. She bowed to her queen and took her place next to the princess whose eyes were locked onto the prince's. _

_One by one, being introduced, Endymion's guards entered the hall. Last, like her, Kunzite came, signaling his rank above his fellows. His eyes locked with hers and his lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile at her. She fought it herself. If anyone of the court found out she had gone to Earth, and to get the princess no less, there would be hell to pay. But it had been worth it…_

_…Venus jumped above the blast. She cursed. This was supposed to be the happiest day of Jupiter's…Lita's…**Makoto's** life and now they were being attacked. Why couldn't she have done something, foreseen this? But then, she wasn't psychic like Mars was, and even she hadn't seen this. _

_"Star Children!"__ Beams of light and golden stars burst from her hands as she held them at her sides. She brought them above her head and twirled. The beams and golden stars floated around her enemy. An explosion and dust flew everywhere, signaling the youma's destruction._

_"Thunder God!"___

_Venus almost winced when she heard of Jupiter's voice. It was filled with rage and sadness. They all knew that this battle could mean the end of the moon. It was too much, this battle. It could mean the end of the moon…_

_"Flame Shot!"_

_"Diamond Dust!"___

_She noticed Mars had had to revert to one of her less powerful attacks. She must have used a lot of power for her other, most powerful attack. Gods, Selene, help us, she prayed as they fought on._

Minako listed to the side as she tried to walk. "Leave me alone," she whimpered. She fell on the pavement and covered her head, as if these things she was seeing were coming from the raindrops. She sobbed there, alone on the empty street, for ten minutes as the visions continued, though none were as complete as the first two. They were either feelings or snatches like photographs through her brain.

She dragged herself onto her feet and made her way home. She barely got in the door and closed it when her legs gave out. At the sound of the door shutting, the white cat named Artemis entered the hall. He gave her a shocked look and ran to her, careful of the water soaking the floor.

"Minako, Minako, are you all right?"

She smiled. She was growing accustomed to this strange talking cat; she was even attributing human emotions to it. 

"I'm fine, Artemis."

She levered herself onto her feet and into the bathroom where she undressed and dropped her wet clothes. No need for a shower now; she'd had one outside. Wrapped in a blue terry bathrobe, she went into her bedroom.

She glanced at the mirror and looked at her hair. Ever since she had gotten that pen and became that warrior Venus, her hair had grown down to her butt and had not gotten shorter since. She had almost made an appointment to get it cut again, but the feeling that it wouldn't matter stopped her. Her glance fell on the pen on the desk. It was a strange thing, that pen that had changed her life.

Minako sat at her window and looked at the moon.

_'It could mean the end of the moon…' _

What did that mean? No one lived on the moon before, but Pluto had said there had been a civilization on there. It all came down to magic, which she had always been inclined to believe in until three years ago. When Ace had cheated on her with her friend Chi, magic had no longer existed for her. 

But when Keagan had appeared…It was as if magic had reappeared inside of her. Him alone would have made her think that magic existed, even if the things Pluto had shown her hadn't shown it itself.

She dropped back on her bed and fell asleep, still wondering.

That night the dream was a little different. 

_When she appeared at the bubbles, the man was still there, yes, but something was different. Then she had it; the bubbles were moving! They were shifting, as if they were balls that were trying to get out of a tightly tied net. _

_"What's going on?" she cried, irrational fear filling her._

_The man looked at her, the royal blue eyes filled with steel. "Mercury has awakened. He knows it. But that is not enough. All of you must awaken. You in particular, leader of the Senshi, Venus."_

She was thrust back to reality by the phone ringing. "I'm the leader," she mumbled. 

Minako stumbled to the phone, but as soon as she was there, she realized that it wasn't ringing. But something was.

Artemis ran in the room with something between his teeth. Jumping on the table next to the phone he dropped it in front of her. "The ringing is coming from your communicator. Answer it!"

Hesitantly Minako picked it up and pushed a button. Ami's picture filled the small screen, though she had that tiara on her head. She was a Soldier then. 

"Venus, thank goodness I could get you. Luna has to get Makoto with the communicator and I have no idea if Mars remembers how to use it. You must come down to Juuban Hospital quickly. He's attacking again."

The visual cut off and Minako put down the communicator slowly, thinking deeply. Artemis nipped her hand and she jumped. "Hurry and henshin! They need you!"

"Venus Crystal Power, Make-Up!"

Minako ran down the street, dressed in that strange attire. It was still deep night; she must have had only an hour of sleep since she had gotten home that night. Grumbling at her lack of sleep, she ran into a bloodbath.

The man stayed high in the air above them, throwing magic attacks in every ally's direction. There were fifteen youma, ranging from eight feet tall to barely three feet tall. Keagan landed next to her and she saw him scanning her haggard and pale face. She could tell he wanted to tell her to stay out of battle, but it was painfully obvious that they needed all the help they could get and didn't dare to risk it by telling her to stay out of it.

"Our main problem is him," he said, pointing to the floating man. "As soon as we get rid of him, we shouldn't have such a problem with the youma. And to top it off, Mercury is the only one…" He trailed off.

"The only one what?" she asked sharply, her eyes watching the battle.

"The only one who remembers."

Her eyes snapped to him, but he was already gone, back into the battle. She shook her head. She didn't _want to remember, if what those things she saw in her mind were true._

She jumped into battle, doing her best to fight. However it became clearly noticeable that the only people having any success at fighting were Makoto and Rei.

"Shabon Spray!"

A dense fog covered the area, though Minako found she could still see. She aimed a weak punch at a youma and it whirled catching her fist. It tossed her like a rag doll onto the ground. 

Twin silver boomerangs flew at the youma, distracting it from her. From behind, a monster about two and a half feet tall jumped on Keagan's back and began digging in its claws. He grunted in pain and tried to dislodge it. The bigger youma that had attacked her moved in for what it saw was an easy kill. 

Minako's breath caught as Keagan threw off the youma and blasted it, not seeing the one weaving itself toward him. She jumped up, hoping her warning came out quick enough. 

However, what came out of her mouth was not a warning.

"Star Children!" Like before, beams of light and golden stars burst from her hands as she held them at her sides. She brought them above her head and twirled. The beams and golden stars floated around her enemy. An explosion and dust flew everywhere, signaling the youma's destruction.

Silence fell on the battlefield and Venus's blue eyes looked up, filled with unmatchable anger. "As the leader of the Senshi, Sailor Venus, you will perish at my hand." Her voice was low, but easily heard by everyone. 

"Silver Dragon!"

A dragon made of silver, gold, and white light erupted behind her and glared balefully at the man floating in the air. It screeched and launched itself at him, beams of golden light coming from its mouth. Sparkles of silver light fell from its wingtips and harmlessly on them and the ground.

He screamed as one of the beams hit him and disappeared.

The dragon whirled and dived for the ground, heading for the largest concentration of youma. A beautiful eruption of yellow light filled the area and ten youma were destroyed. The last five were easily dispatched. Venus felt herself waver in exhaustion, finally remembering. 

She looked up at Kunzite, who watched her inscrutably. Suddenly she smiled and tottered toward him, falling into his arms. He looked down at her, his eyes brightening in hope. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him slowly. He eagerly kissed her back, as if he had waited for years to even hold her. 

"Kunzite."

Venus pulled away and smiled into his eyes before collapsing.

End of part 6

Like I said before, these attacks are from Legend of Dragoon. I don't own them. Sony, Playstation, whoever owns the rights to them.


	8. Part 07

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 7_

Makoto walked with Jace on her left and Minako on her right who had her arm through Keagan's. Makoto had asked last night whether he wanted to be called Keagan or Kris and had been immediately told Keagan. 

"This is it."

Makoto looked at the set of steps that Minako had pointed out. The foursome strode up the stone steps and to the shrine at the top. There were cherry blossom trees all around it and two crows sat in one of them, watching them with suspicious eyes. They cawed and landed on Rei's shoulders as she left the shrine.

She gave them a startled look, but walked up to them. "Yes?"

"We just wanted to see you, Rei-chan," Minako answered, smiling. 

Rei and Makoto locked eyes and something unspoken passed between them. They were the only two left who hadn't changed. The changes in Ami and Minako were rather disturbing to them, especially Makoto. She had not known that one single incident could change a person so much.

"Oh. That's nice."

"Rei?"

Rei turned and Makoto looked behind her. A tall man stood in the doorway. His brown hair was a rather stringy brown, his eyes an earthy color as well. He wore a white and blue kimono.

"Yes, Yuuichirou?"

"Who are these people? I've never seen them at the shrine before."

"These are my friends."

His eyebrow rose and he remarked, "Friends? You haven't had those in a while."

She glared at him and Makoto bristled. Who would dare say something so rude to anyone? "I can have friends, I just choose not to!"

"And why did you choose to have some?"

Rei looked back at the surprised faces in front of her. "Because they are good people and I like them," she said staunchly.

Yuuichirou shrugged. "Whatever. I'm going to go to the store. We're out of some of the herb teas you like."

She nodded and Yuuichirou went back into the shrine, coming out a minute later dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. He gave them all a sidelong look, especially Jace, as he left.

Makoto turned sharply to Rei when he was gone. "Who was that?"

Rei sat down wearily on the stone steps in front of the shrine door. "My husband."

Makoto had to steady Jace as he nearly choked on breathing. "Your…husband?" he asked, trying very much to hide his emotions.

Rei nodded. "We've been married for five years now. He came to the shrine nine and a half years ago. When Ojii-chan died five years ago, he asked me to marry him. I agreed."

"Do you love him?" Minako asked gently, glancing at Jace who was a pasty white color.

Rei looked at the ground and sighed. "Two years ago, I would have said yes. Now I'm not so sure. Three years ago, we started to fight over just about anything. I've tried my hardest to change things and make them better. I tried at first to curb my stubbornness and reach compromises, but when Yuuichirou realized this we got into a fight over that. Lately we barely talk because we fear getting into another fight. It's all coming down around my ears now."

Minako pulled her arm from Keagan's and knelt down next to Rei. "It started three years ago?"

Rei nodded.

"Three years ago, the person I thought wanted to spend the rest of my life with cheated on me with one of my friends. I broke it off with him three years ago."

Makoto saw Keagan stiffen, hearing a man hurting his girlfriend. She kicked him and he gave her a rueful look. 

"So?"

"Mako-chan, were you involved with anyone three years ago?"

Makoto shook her head, but Minako couldn't see, so she said, "No."

"And Ami-chan wasn't. I think I know what this is about."

Rei looked up at her. "Then what is it?"

Minako gave her a gentle and sad look. "I can't tell you yet; you wouldn't understand just now."

The priestess jumped up and glared at the blonde woman who stood up more slowly. "Tell me! How dare you bring it up and not tell me!"

"When you remember, I'll tell you."

Rei's anger seemed to steam as if hit by cold water. It was gone in a few moments and she finally nodded. "All right, I'll accept that answer."

Makoto knew from her set jaw that now she was wishing to remember and she was going to find out how to remember. Somehow Makoto thought that when she 'remembered' she would regret it.

"We should go. We have to meet Ami-chan now. Do you want to come, Rei-chan?" Minako asked brightly.

Rei shook her head. "I have to take care of the shrine. I'll meet up with you later."

They nodded and headed away from the shrine. Makoto looked behind her and just barely saw Rei disappear inside the shrine.

"Are you all right?" the brown-haired woman asked the man beside her. Minako and Keagan both looked at Jace as well, Minako and Keagan having understanding in their eyes.

"No, I'm not. I feel sick to my stomach."

"Why?"

They stopped at the park where Ami, Zale, and Nick waited. Upon seeing his pale face, Ami immediately grew worried. 

He sat down on a bench and said to the three who had not been with them, "Rei's married."

The three seemed to immediately know why this hurt him so and Makoto began to get a little irritated. Why did everyone seem to know why he was so upset and she didn't? 

_'They remembered…'_

The thought sobered her.

"Oh, Jace," Ami said, her voice hushed.

"Why do you feel so bad?" Makoto asked again.

A moment of silence and finally Minako spoke up. "Back in the Silver Millennium, there were five pairs of soulmates. Serenity and Endymion, Kunzite and Venus, Zoisite and Mercury, Nephrite and Jupiter, and Jadeite and Mars." She took a deep breath, seeing Nick wince and no emotion of Makoto's face, for indeed, Makoto felt nothing when Jupiter was mentioned. She continued, "After a turning of events, the Moon Kingdom fell and Queen Serenity sent all to the future of Earth. From what Keagan said, all the Shitennou, Kunzite, Zoisite, Nephrite, and Jadeite, knew what they were from the ages of three to five. Thus they knew who their soulmates were and have been waiting to get together with them for nineteen years. For Jace to find Rei-chan; for Jadeite to find Mars, married was beyond painful. He's waited for nineteen years to get together with Rei-chan, Mako-chan, and to find that she not only had a boyfriend, but _married _him…it's tearing him apart."

"So what did you mean by 'three years'?"

"Well, only two of the four Inner Senshi were involved with someone. I broke it off, like I think Fate intended to happen. Fate wanted the pairs of soulmates to come together later on. Therefore Keagan and I are together. But remember what Rei-chan said. She tried to save their marriage instead of breaking it off, as Fate intended it to happen. Now it has a sticky situation on its hands. I think it started three years ago so it would have plenty of time to break up Rei-chan and I. It didn't work out so well for Rei-chan."

There was silence in their small area of the park. "What triggers the remembrance?" Makoto asked finally, staring off into space and thinking deeply.

Minako and Ami looked at each other and Ami answered, "Intense emotions. I was terrified when those youma were chasing me and I ran to the water. I remembered then."

"I was angry that I couldn't understand what was going on and it culminated when I saw that Kunzite might be killed. I remembered then. It all comes down to a single intense emotion."

Makoto nodded her head decisively and walked away from the group thoughtfully. She didn't notice them watching her. 

Luna walked beside her as she wandered the streets thinking. She had to understand how Rei felt when Minako had refused to tell her about her three year supposition, and Makoto felt frustrated that she didn't feel the same things as the others did. She felt like an outsider when she was around them, though she knew that they were trying to make her feel welcome. 

Luna jumped on her shoulder and asked quietly in her ear, "Is there something wrong? We've passed this corner four times now."

Makoto answered her without thinking. "I feel like an outsider when I'm around them." She went into more depth to Luna, explaining, but it didn't relieve her any. "Why can't I just remember like them?"

"They said it took an intense emotion; you just haven't found that overwhelming emotion yet."

"But I want to remember; so does Rei-chan."

"Poor Jace."

They walked on in silence for a long while when Makoto heard a scream. She whirled around and stared behind her. People ran ahead of her, pushing and shoving as a huge monster rounded the corner. It was huge, fifteen feet high and walked on all fours. It looked like some demon from the seven hells. It had a braided necklace of bone and feather around its neck and it stared with fire flame eyes at her. 

She pulled out her 'henshin' wand as Luna jumped from her shoulder to get the others.

"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-Up!"

She charged it, but it swatted her back like a fly. This was one battle that she knew physical strength would not help her. Fire sprouted down its back like an outside spine as it saw her lying on her back on the ground. 

"Freezing Ring!" Chunks of ice flew at the monster and hurt it a bit, but not by much.

"Star Children!" The beams from Minako's attack lanced forward and stabbed into the creature, but it did even less damage than Ami's attack had done.

"Grand Stream!" The sound of the Senshi of the sea's voice had a great relieving effect on Makoto. She looked to the creatures down left and Rei, Haruka, and Michiru stood there.

"Meteor Strike!" Haruka called out, her hand closed into fist over her heart. The earth exploded around her in a circle and a meteor hurtled down from the sky toward her. It connected with the stones circling her and seemed to bounce off it and veer toward the demon.

It roared in pain, though it looked like Michiru's attack had done the most damage. Makoto jumped to her feet and Rei ran to stand beside her, watching the others fight the creature, both feeling inadequate. If only she remembered…!

Her frustration built like a thunderstorm and she let out a scream of aggravation. 

And she remembered.

_Lita walked down the white carpet that had been laid across the grass in the gardens of the __Moon__Palace__. Her heart burst with happiness. She was finally going to marry Nephrite. She was the first of the five couples to get married. Endymion and Serenity were going to be married in the next month, but right then, it was Lita who was doing it first. _

_She looked through the green veil at the Nephrite. Traditionally, the bride wore white, but her father and mother had insisted she wear the traditional green of the Jovian family. Her arm in her father's, who was smiling as if he was the most happiest person in all the planets, Lita could feel as if nothing could go wrong._

_Just as the King of Jupiter handed his daughter to Nephrite, an explosion rocked the Moon. Lita whirled and saw a dark cloud nearly above them in what had been a clear sky. She knew it was no thunder cloud, but an evil force, bent upon destroying them all._

_All the planetary royals were rushed onto their ships to go back to their planets, but one by one, the cloud destroyed them all. Lita wept as she saw her parents' shuttle destroyed, obliterated. Her gaze focused on the woman who controlled this force. This was Beryl, that was Metallia. She would pay…_

_"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-Up!"_

_Jupiter didn't care who saw that it was the Princess of Jupiter who turned into the Senshi of that same planet. Her wedding destroyed, her parents killed…It all fueled her anger and she pulled all her power to do her most powerful attack._

_"Thunder God!"_

_Her tiara extended; her fist crackled with lightning and she thrust it into the sky. Lightning and wind flew down and struck it. Her body was encased in lightning and lifted four feet above the ground. She jerked her body from her fetal position and thrust her palm towards the creature darkening the Moon's sky. _

_The lightning flew in all directions, destroying petty youma and hurting Beryl and Metallia. She dropped to the ground, breathing rather heavily, but by no means woozy or energy drained._

_She fought in a bloodthirsty rage, killing all who dared to approach her. "Atomic Mind!" she screamed. Her tiara filled with lightning like her heart and brought her fists level with her waist. She twirled and brought her fists up toward the sky. Lightning and wind flew down and swept the youma away from her, tearing them apart in the maelstrom._

_"Moon Healing Escalation!"_

_The power of the Ginzuishou flowed from Queen Serenity's wand and attacked the evil that threatened her home. It was then that Jupiter realized she was dying. All her power had taken its toll and she had a number of deep wounds that would never let her live._

_She saw the creature destroyed and then she saw white. Her last thought was of her princess and Nephrite…_

"Thunder God!" 

Her tiara extended; her fist crackled with lightning and she thrust it into the sky. Lightning and wind flew down and struck it. Her body was encased in lightning and lifted four feet above the ground. She jerked her body from her fetal position and thrust her palm towards demon. 

The lightning flew in a cohesive unit toward the startled youma. Jupiter never realized that while her memory took an hour, it was only a few seconds since it had hit and she fully remembered.

"Grand Stream!"

An ocean of water surrounded Neptune and she twirled twice, her arms thrust out to direct her water. The water flew up and fell like a waterfall over the youma and it screamed as it extinguished some of its flame.

Beside Makoto, Rei felt the stirrings of jealously. Even she had remembered. _Why must I be the only one left? Why? Why? Her jealously grew until she nearly felt hate for the tall woman that she had come to call friend._

Then she remembered.

_"Flame Shot!"_

_Mars drew the power to the jewel on fuku's front bow. With a burst of red light, a ball of fire formed in front of her chest. She did a jump kick and propelled toward her enemy. _

_She breathed heavily. "Mars Flame Sniper!" The arrow gave her time to dodge out of the way and gather her wits. She was exhausted. She had constantly used her most powerful attack, her talismans, and all her other powers that she had barely a trickle of energy left. _

_Mars found herself under hand to hand combat. She knew she would force herself to survive. While the other Senshi were injured, some badly, some not so, she had barely a scratch on her. She fought conservatively until she saw Jadeite lying on the ground, unmoving. _

_She ran to him and turned him onto his back. He was badly injured and she found her hands shaking at the thought of his death. _

_He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Rei," he said, using her magic name. A thrill went down her spine. "I will always love you. Will you wait for me?"_

_"I will always wait for you. Always and always."_

_He nodded and closed his beautiful blue eyes. She gasped and cried onto his chest. She forced herself to move on; she had reasons to move on. But as she saw her princess lying cradled in a dying prince's arms, her reasons to move and live were gone, like dust in the wind._

_She turned around slowly and faced the hordes of youmas, daemons, and demons. She knew if she did this attack now it would kill her because she would have no energy reserves left. But she didn't care. _

_"Final Burst!"_

_Fire flamed at her back and encased her in an eggshell. She lowered herself down on one knee, as if kneeling in front of a monarch and fire swept in horizontal and vertical angles. She stood up slowly and twirled five times, faster each time. The fire at her back that was shaped somewhat like wings burst forth toward the Beryl._

_She collapsed before she saw the results of her attack…_

"Final Burst!" The attack sprung from her lips and body as it had so many years ago, though it didn't do much except enrage the demon. She stood next to Jupiter, who was smiling in a fierce kind of joy.

"Soldier of lightning and earth, Sailor Jupiter! You will feel the shock of my passing!"

"Soldier of flame and war, Sailor Mars! My fire will scorch you forever!"

There was a loud cheer at their remembrance and the fight truly began. A lightening of heart was felt all around, for two of their most powerful warriors had awakened and now they were complete.

Mercury and Neptune pulled apart after conferring for a moment. They jumped to either side of it and screamed their most powerful attacks.

"Diamond Dust!"

"Grand Stream!"

The two attacks, water and ice, finished the fire demon, who screamed in pain at its passing.

Jupiter ran to Nephrite, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him soundly. When they pulled away, the Shitennou of the North American division laughed aloud in delight at having his soulmate back in his arms.

Mars and Jadeite stared at each other across the street, neither moving, neither welcoming. Tears welled up in her eyes and Jadeite immediately ran to her. She couldn't resist him as he pulled her into his arms.

"I'm so sor-sor-sorry, Jadeite! I broke my promise to you! I'm so sorry!" she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Shh, shh, it's all right."

"No it isn't. I broke my promise to you!"

He nuzzled her hair and she looked up. His lips immediately descended on hers. She made no move to stop it; rather she closed her eyes and kissed him back passionately. When he pulled away, he pressed his forehead against hers. 

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that, but ever since I saw you I've wanted to kiss you. I've wanted to hold you in my arms for so long!" His voice broke as tears threatened. His hold on her tightened.

"What are we going to do, Jadeite?" she whispered.

"I don't know, love," he answered back. "I don't know."

End part 7

If anyone knows Dragoon, you will know that Grand Stream is an earth/fire attack and not water, but whatever. Yes, the description of Flame Shot is the same as in the game, but that will probably be the only one that's the same. I don't own the copyright for these attacks, but I do own the game and everyone should play it.

I know; it's a tear-jerker. What will Rei do? Will she divorce Yuuichirou or not? Well I guess you'll find out if you read on.


	9. Part 08

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 8_

Mars stared up at Jadeite. Slowly the other Senshi withdrew to leave them alone. She had no idea what to say to him.

"I'll walk you home, if I may?"

She nodded, but they never made it to her home. Rei woke up with warm arms around her naked body. Deep breathing fluffed her hair from behind. She knew immediately that it was not Yuuichirou because no hair tickled her shoulder. Her body tensed as she remembered last night. 

"Oh gods," she muttered. She had done something she had not wanted to do. Well, she had wanted to be with Jadeite, but not cheat on Yuuichirou. It was dishonoring to him as well as her and Jace's relationship.

He stirred behind her and abruptly sat up. She sat up more slowly. Jace dropped his face in his hands. "Rei-chan, Rei, gods, what have we done?"

Rei hugged herself. "I don't know what to do, Jace. I don't want to hurt Yuuichirou and having an affair on him feels dirty. But I love you like I can't love him. What do I do?"

He gave her a wry grin. "I'm just as lost as you."

"What do I tell Yuuichirou when I go home today?"

A shake of his head told her he didn't know.

Slowly she got up from the bed and began to pull on her clothes. When she looked back she noticed that Jace had followed her progress with lost eyes. She knew what he was feeling, but it was all her fault for bringing this problem on their relationship. Why had she agreed to Yuuichirou in the first place? Because she had been grieving over her grandfather's death and she had thought she had loved him.

"We will meet soon…Jace."

He nodded and she left his home. As soon as the front door closed behind her, she fled. To where, she let her feet take her. Who could understand? Ami-chan? No, she understood less than the ways of the heart than anyone Rei ever knew. Mako-chan? No, she wouldn't understand, being on a high of love. Not that the fiery Senshi would have it any other way, but it didn't help her in her problem. That left Minako-chan. The only problem with that was that she would give advice, try to help, and doing ineffectual things. 

She let out a sob as she ran. She wanted the princess; she wanted Usagi. She was the only person who she could truly count on to just listen. If she wanted advice, she'd go to Minako, but that would be later. First she wanted someone to talk to period.

Rei found herself outside the hospital. She walked in and carefully slipped by Ami when the woman wasn't looking. Immediately she headed for the door that led to a closed off room. She knew he was in there and he was the closest she could get to Usagi; to the princess. And he could be trusted. After all, his best friend was her past lover.

Endymion, or rather Mamoru, lay, for once lately, peacefully in his bed. She sat down next to it and crossed her arms on the edge of the metal bars that edged the mattress.

"Hey, Endy—oh, sorry, Mamoru. I have a problem and I thought you could listen." Suddenly her sobs let out and she gasped it out to the comatose man. Sometimes she could swear his eyes flickered under his eyelids, as if could really hear her, but it was so rare that she convinced herself she hadn't seen it.

The whole problem spilled out and after a while, her head pillowed on her arms, she lay silent, her tears dried up. A throat cleared itself behind her and she spun in her chair. She was almost disappointed, but mostly relieved when it was only Nick. She looked behind him and he shook his head.

"Mako-chan isn't here with me. She said she had some thinking to do and reorienting herself to both the past part of her and the present. I just came to see our liege, but he obviously isn't alone. If he's courting someone other than the Princess Serenity, I'll have to box his ears."

Rei smiled wanly at his joke. He moved to stand on the other side of the bed. "Or Jace will."

The smile disappeared and she looked away. "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough."

_Long enough to hear everything I said_, she thought sourly.

"Not that long, but enough to get the gist of it," he said, correctly interpreting her thoughts with a speculative look on his face.

"I just don't know what to do, Nick. I love Jace, but I'm married to Yuuichirou, and last night…"

"I had not suspected that things would be so heated between you that it would happen so soon."

"But you knew it would happen."

"Yes, it would happen eventually, as it will between Makoto and myself. As it will between Ami and Zale. As it will between Minako and Keagan. It is only a matter of time, but I had not thought it would happen so soon between you two, especially with you…" He trailed off.

"You don't have to remind me." Rei looked anywhere but at him, her shame wanting to burn her face off.

His eyes were wary as he asked, "Out of curiosity, why don't you just divorce Yuuichirou?"

Rei glared at him. "No! I gave my word till death do us part and I will honor it even though I am no longer in love with him!"

Nick suddenly smiled, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. "That is good to hear. I was hoping you were still the same woman who I called little sister in the Silver Millennium."

And suddenly Rei remembered that too. Though Nephrite and Raye, Princess of Mars, had not been related at all, because the two were the most psychic, they had formed a bond that went deeper than any others she had except with the princess and Jadeite. Her eyes filled with tears and she launched herself at Nick, burying her face in his chest. "I forgot that too! First the promise to him broken and now this! What is wrong with me, Nephrite?"

He shushed her and she suddenly remembered what name she had used. She smiled wryly. All of the past lives of the Senshi wanted to intrude on the present one, seeming to ignore that the Senshi of the present had different lives from back then and it wasn't wise to say their Shitennou/Senshi names in public.

"It took us Shitennou many years to fully remember and gain the emotions back from those memories. I am not surprised you don't remember our bond. You only remembered yourself but yesterday."

"What do I do, Nick? I love Jace as if he was my life, but I swore a vow to Yuuichirou and I've worked three years to save our marriage. _Three years! _I don't want to think that those years were wasted."

"No year that you try your hardest at something is ever wasted. But this time I cannot advise you. Go to Minako if you have need of advice, but in the end it is all up to you."

"But I cannot deny the pull I feel for Jace or Jadeite."

"Don't deny it."

"But if I don't, I'll end up cheating on Yuuichirou; I already have, and that demeans not only him, but our relationship."

"Think it over long and hard before you do anything is all I can say to you," Nick said seriously. 

"I almost wish one of those youma would come around and accidentally kill him."

He frowned at her attempt at humor. "Don't ever joke about something like that, Hino Rei. It is a dangerous thing. After all, it might happen if we aren't good enough."

That stopped her cold and chilled her. Yuuichirou, dead? No! Much as she wanted to be with Jace, she would never forgive herself if Yuuichirou died. And it would hurt so much more if she knew that she had joked about it and it had come true.

"I'll go so you can talk to the prince," she said quietly and soberly.

Nick squeezed her arm as she pulled away from him. "Just remember I am always here if you want to talk."

She nodded and left the room. It was time to talk to Minako, the warrior of love. She had to have advice. She had done her explaining and crying to listening ears, even though it hadn't been quite the same as it would have with the princess. Now she needed advice on a course of action.

She found Minako and Keagan leaning against a railing, overlooking a lake. She hesitated to approach them, but he knew immediately that she was there. He turned to look at her as she approached. 

"Hello, Rei-chan." Minako turned to greet her.

"Never could sneak up on you two, could I?" she asked amusedly as more memories superimposed them over the people in front of her. Only these images were of a much younger Kunzite and Mina. Mina had only been sixteen when she had found and fallen for her soulmate; it had taken Minako nearly ten more years than that to find the same thing. If she judged Keagan's age correctly, he was 27 and Kunzite had only been 18 when he had become the head Shitennou for the Prince Endymion.

"Is there something wrong?" Minako asked as she saw the shadows in Rei's eyes that she had tried so hard to hide.

"It's about Jace and I."

Keagan nodded and moved to leave, but Rei reached out and grasped his arm. "Stay, Kunzite—I mean, Keagan. You were very close to me back then and we are close again, so stay. You can help, as well, I hope."

He nodded and leaned back on the railing. Minako gestured for her to continue.

"I love Jace _and Jadeite more than life, but I'm married to Yuuichirou. I don't want to cheat or have an affair on him; that's demeaning for all concerned. But I swore a vow on my marriage day that I would stay with him till death parted us. What do I do? I want to be with Jace, but I don't want to…go through the pain of a divorce and such."_

"You have to talk to Yuuichirou about this," Minako said after a moment of silence. "You have to tell him."

"I can see that going over real well," Rei muttered sarcastically. "'I'm a Sailor Soldier that protects a Princess of the Moon and I found my soulmate again, so we have to break up'."

"She's not saying to tell him you're a Soldier or anything," Keagan said with a calming look at her. "She's saying tell him you're not in love with him anymore. Work from his response then."

"But how do I approach it?" she whined softly.

"The Rei way," Minako said with a smile. "Do it like Rei would, or if it makes it easier, the Mars way."

Rei looked startled, but a slow smile spread across her face. She nodded, a lilt of laughter falling from her mouth. "Thanks, Mina-chan."

"Mina-chan?"

"Minako-chan."

Minako laughed as she walked off. Rei took a roundabout way of getting back to the shrine. As she reached the middle of the stone steps leading up, a thought stopped her cold. She had not come home the night before and Yuuichirou knew she had no one stay over with so she could not plead she had stayed over at a friends. She could not plead work for her work was the temple. What was she going to tell him?

"Rei, Rei! You aren't going to believe this!" Yuuichirou called at the top of the steps. She walked up to his excited form. 

"What?"

"I saw the most incredible thing! There were these warriors fighting this monster in the middle of the street yesterday! I saw it when I was coming home from the store with the teas! They were incredible and then after the battle, I saw this one dressed in red embrace and cry into this man's shoulder. They looked like they belonged together so much that it brought tears to my eyes, seeing how happy they were together."

Rei choked on the air she was breathing like Jace had the day before when she had said she was married. He had watched her kiss Jadeite?! Oh gods above, this was going to be harder than she had originally thought. 

"It kind of reminded me of when we first got married, you know? The love that was there was kind of how it was between us."

Rei was close to having a coronary right there on her doorstep. Was Yuuichirou _trying_ to kill her? She got her breathing under control, and with sheer force of will got her heart to beat normally.

As they walked back to the shrine, Yuuichirou finally turned to her and asked casually, "So where were you last night?"

She stumbled and Yuuichirou's arms went around her, though she pushed away from him fairly quickly. "That battle you mentioned had the streets all clogged up. I had gone with some of the friends you saw at the shrine earlier to meet at the park with some other people and on the way back, the police had the street all sealed off. I couldn't come back so I stayed with Makoto." She took a deep breath.

"Yuuichirou, I have something to tell you—" 

"At least you weren't involved in the battle. I'd die if something ever happened to you."

Her mouth snapped shut and he turned to her. "What did you want to tell me?"

"Nothing except that I forgot that I didn't do the walk yesterday."

"Oh. Don't worry about it."

He kissed her, but she didn't return it. He gave her a curious look, but went back inside the temple without another word. Rei felt tears filling her eyes. She had intended to tell him, she really had, but she couldn't, not after his declaration of love. She stumbled over to the tree that her crows lived in and they flew down, settling on her shoulders.

Slow tears tracked down her cheeks. "Oh gods, what do I do?"

Silence even from Phobos and Deimos greeted her.

End part 8

At least everyone has all their memories. Standard disclaimers still apply.


	10. Part 09

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 9_

Makoto knocked on the door to the house on the address and Michiru answered promptly. "Hello," she greeted with a smile. Makoto smiled back at her and entered as Michiru moved to allow her to pass.

"Is everyone here?"

Michiru nodded and led her to a large parlor, a white piano near a bay window. There were sofas strategically placed around the room so the people there could look at each person without having to strain their necks or eyes.

"Where's Setsuna?" Makoto asked, seeing the one Soldier besides Saturn missing.

"We don't know," Haruka answered, standing up from a dark blue couch.

"Right now, where she is, is the least of our problems." They looked at Minako's grim face. "She's probably at the Time Gate. At this moment, we have to find a way to reach Serenity. She's been away from us far too long—"

"Kisama!" Makoto slapped a hand on her forehead and they all looked at her. "I met with Usagi's parents and promised to tell them where she was if I found out when I first went to the park to meet Setsuna."

"Mako-chan," Rei said, scandalized. "You can't tell them we're Senshi!" she hissed.

"I didn't know I was one or remembered," Makoto replied hotly.

Minako cut in before an argument ensued. "Calm down. First we have to contact the princess if we can, break her out if it is possible. _Then _we'll deal with her family."

"They have a right to know where she is," Ami said quietly but firmly.

"I'm not saying we won't bring Usagi back to her parents," Minako soothed, "but not until we get her out. They won't believe us anyway at this point with no evidence to show them besides our henshins and that'd have to be _dire _for us to use in front of them."

They all agreed reluctantly that what she said was true.

"Now, we only see the princess when we're sleeping. We should all hold hands when we fall asleep and see if we can't get together at the same time and figure this all out."

"But sleeping in the daylight?" asked Rei skeptically.

"It may take us hours to do anything and we want the whole day to try other things if this doesn't work.

"Besides, if one of us can't get to sleep, then Ami brought some sleeping stuff to put us under." She looked at Ami and the doctor nodded.

They sat in a circle on the floor, Keagan sitting next to Minako, Jace next to Rei, Zale next to Ami, Nick next to Makoto, and Haruka next to Michiru. They clasped hands and stared at each other.

"Should we use the tranquilizers anyway?" Zale questioned, but almost as soon as he asked, they were all yawning and within minutes, they were all slumped and asleep.

When Makoto opened her eyes, she immediately recognized the place she was in. Slowly forms materialized next to her. The first was Venus, on her left Mars. Mercury appeared next to her and further down Uranus and Neptune. Despite putting the men between each Senshi, the Shitennou appeared in a group by themselves, next to Venus.

As they watched the bubbles that shifted wildly, another form materialized and they all stiffened. Makoto let out a breath as she recognized him, Endymion, the Prince of Earth.

"Endymion!" Jadeite cried and ran forward to grasp the man.

The prince looked startled at seeing his Kings, but a wide smile stretched his lips as he looked at them all. Kunzite and the others moved forward as Jadeite released the dark-haired man.

"We've come to help the princess," Nephrite told him as the five men calmed down.

Endymion suddenly lost his smile. "You can't save her here. You must defeat the man who did this and then she will be free. You can do nothing here."

"Well we're going to try," Uranus said staunchly, glaring at Endymion for his pessimism. 

He simply shook his head as the Senshi approached the barrier. After a moment of study and Mercury's computer and visor, Venus decided, "We'll use our most powerful attacks at it and try to destroy it."

"Silver Dragon!"

"Diamond Dust!"

"Final Burst!"

"Thunder God!"

"Grand Stream!"

"Meteor Strike!"

All the five Senshi's attacks spiraled around Venus's gold dragon as it dived toward the barrier, giving the flying creature substance of all elements except death and time.

It gave a shriek of anger, feeding off Venus's emotions, and shattered against the churning bubbles with a spectacular explosion of light, leaving after-effects of flashes on everyone's eyes.

When Jupiter looked again, she gasped. There was no break in the barrier at all! It didn't look as if they'd ever attacked it. Venus swooned and Jupiter caught her, admonishing the woman for using such a draining attack as that when they hadn't been sure it would have worked anyway.

Suddenly light was drawn from the bubbles that had been hit by the magical dragon. It formed into an image that the Senshi impressed upon their mind so they would remember when they woke.

Princess Serenity looked down at them with her deep, loving blue eyes and smiled. "I thank you for trying to rescue me, but you cannot here. The man who holds me capture…his power is strong, stronger here than in the mortal realm. That is where he is weak. This is his own element; he is invincible here."

"Who is he, Serenity?" Mars gasped out.

"I do not know, but Pluto does. Ask her."

"She will tell us nothing, Princess," Neptune said with a bow.

"She will when you call her." Serenity turned from the Senshi and her eyes fastened on the man with royal blue eyes and dark armor.

"Endymion," she whispered.

"Serenity," he murmured back, their eyes drinking in their unending fill for each other.

A jerking on her body brought Jupiter back to the parlor in Haruka and Michiru's home. She found herself lying on Nick's chest, having collapsed there when sleep had overtaken her. She slowly sat up, groggily, and looked out the window. It was just turning dark, something she had not expected. She had arrived at noon and they had just sat down at 12:30. She had been asleep for hours! No wonder she was so sore!

There was a collective groan all around as the Senshi and men picked themselves up and rubbed their gritty eyes. 

"How did we fall asleep so fast?" Ami pondered. "And why did it take so long there when it felt like only a few minutes."

"I can answer both those questions."

They whipped their attention to a sofa where Setsuna sat calmly, drinking some tea. At their looks, she sat down her cup and folded her hands in her lap, gazing at them evenly.

"Well?" Minako prompted as everyone, Makoto with quite a few grumbles, picked themselves up off the floor.

"I put you to sleep with a spell. As for the time, well, in that place, everything is skewed compared to here. It is the way he set it up."

"Who is he?" Haruka demanded, putting an arm around Michiru's shoulders.

Setsuna sighed. "His name is Daray. It means 'dark', which is rather appropriate, considering who and what he is. He is the last of a race of creatures that looked like humans, yet were anything but. The race, called the Tehee, was a most violent race and loved to dominate. Most of them destroyed themselves in silly wars amongst themselves and with petty squabbles. Daray was smarter than that. He didn't involve himself with his species. Instead, he found his amusement in torturing helpless denizens in his universe. 

"But soon the few left of the Tehee bonded together and managed to make a breach in the fabric of his universe that paralleled our own. Once the discovery was made, however, they began to fight again over who would control and walk between realms. Daray let them fight. When only one of his race was left standing, he approached and backstabbed the man. He was then the last of the Tehee. Daray became the one and only of his race to travel through realms."

Setsuna took a sip of her drink and continued.

"In spite of this, he panicked when he went through the portal that gave him this ability, embedding the portal inside of him as it passed through him. This is why his race fought over who would go. Once someone stepped through the portal, the portal would no longer be there, but inside the person so he or she could go anywhere they wanted to at any time. But it was a one person deal. When Daray turned and saw the portal that led to his universe gone, he panicked. He didn't know this would happen since between all the fighting, no one had outright mentioned that it would happen like this.

"He ran from the four corners of this universe to the next, trying to find a way to get home. He didn't realize the way home lay inside of himself the whole time. On the way, he had a run in with Metallia in the Silver Millennium, changing the fact that Metallia might have come back in the present. Metallia was utterly destroyed, Beryl with her, at the end of the Silver Millennium. The White Queen knew her world was destroyed and you all dead, so she sent you all into the future to try again.

"Anyway, when Daray found himself in the Dark Kingdom it was under lock and chain. He grew angry when they tried all sorts of spells against him to try and figure out why he was so powerful. He easily snapped his chains and confronted Beryl in her own throne room. He didn't know how to get out of there, so he made a deal with her. He would give her a way to defeat the White Moon if she would allow him to leave. She knew he was evil and had no fear that he would run to her enemies and tell them of her attack beforehand.

"It was an offer too sweet for Beryl to resist. He taught her some of the torturous methods used against the people of the Moon that would not only demoralize them, but kill slowly or quickly as she chose. During this process, Daray found the portal inside himself. When the Dark Kingdom attacked the Moon, Daray stayed and watched, amused at the struggle. All he saw was tormenting and that was what amused him, all that had _ever amused him._

"When the Dark Kingdom fell, he stayed long enough to see Queen Serenity send the Senshi and the rest to the future. Daray amused himself for several thousand years going from realm to realm, his own holding no more amusement for him because the people there knew the pain and were no longer terrified but resigned when he tormented them."

Setsuna coughed and Ami refilled her drink. The older woman gave her a smile and took a long sip before returning to her story.

"Eventually Daray wanted to come back to this realm, but he worried about the Senshi. He had seen them in action and they were very powerful, perhaps more powerful than himself. But he consoled himself, thinking he had more things on his side than mere power. He had learned the art of making and summoning youma from observing Beryl and Metallia. He had plenty of things he could summon otherwise, such as that fire demon you fought recently. It was simply that summoning such creatures, such demons and things, took a lot of magic, time, and concentration. He knew he could not win that way, but youmas were ridiculously easy to create.

"So he came back the day that Luna would have found the dormant princess inside of a Tsukino Usagi and created Sailor Moon. But I was too late," she snapped out bitterly. "The possibility that happened now was so remote that I didn't even entertain its likelihood. When I saw Daray through the Time Gate, I entered the Stream of Time and ran as fast as I could to protect the princess. I was too late. She was already sealed away when I reached him, but a scant few seconds behind. But I left him with a deeply embedded fear of the Senshi before he was gone." A vicious smile lifted her lips before she wiped all expression off her face. Makoto and Rei exchanged a look and turned back to her.

"I saw Luna then and told her what happened, didn't I, Luna?"

Luna and Artemis crawled out from under the sofa. Makoto started and looked at them. She had realized that they had been there at all, so wrapped up with the story Setsuna had wrought.

"Yes you did."

"I trusted Luna to wake the Senshi and left back to the Time Gate. But when Usagi disappeared, Time altered. By the time Luna found out where you all lived, you were all gone. Makoto had gone on, traveling to fight in street fighting tournaments. Ami had gone to study abroad and Luna couldn't find out where. Rei was shuttered off to a school in the States by her father when her mother died. She only came back seven years ago, living only two with her grandfather who died five years ago. 

"Luna managed to contact Artemis in England, but by the time they got together in person or even talked, Minako was gone, to where they did not know. I had told Luna and Artemis not to contact Haruka and Michiru who had just begun to become Soldiers again. Their part in the Time Stream was clear and they were fighting the Death Busters. I told them to not look for Saturn, for reasons I will not divulge.

"It was ten years before I forced myself to act." Her bitter words and self-hatred were obvious in that one moment that Setsuna let her guard down and let them in. Her mask didn't come up, letting them see the real person inside the Time Guardian. Her hands clenched into fists in her lap. 

"I was too scared to act, afraid for myself when I should have been more concerned about the Princess. The day that Usagi had been locked away, the Prince collapsed. After a year, I knew that the doctors were going to give him an injection that would kill him. They saw no hope for him. I could not allow that to happen. Instead I used the funds that I have built up over the millenniums to keep him alive. But I couldn't do it all the time, so I set up an account that had access to mine and put Kunzite's name on it for Keagan. I knew he would try to find a way to help his liege.

"After ten years, I had finally built up the courage to do something about the princess. Once I got started though, I was like a wrecking ball. First I contacted Ami and Minako. They'd been friends for a long time and I could count on them to be there. Haruka and Michiru were easy; all I had to do was show up as the Time Guardian and tell them they were needed. Even if I hadn't, they would have known she was in danger and that time was drawing near to break her out. Rei was a little harder, but after I left, she meditated in front of her fire and that decided her.

"The person I was most concerned about was you, Makoto."

Makoto gazed at her in surprise. "Why?"

"You're stubbornness and also I could barely find you. You were always moving. I knew her disappearance had hit you the hardest, I just didn't know that you would take to street fighting. When I talked with you and you made to leave, I panicked. I had to find a way to make you come to Japan and meet with me. I knew if I mentioned the reason you were fighting you would come so I used that. I set up the first class because I knew you would be tired and had never ridden first class in your entire life."

"Did you also arrange it because you knew the Shitennou would be on there as well?" she asked, a little belligerently.

"No, that was a surprise on my part though an unexpected bonus. All this time I had been thinking of the Princess, not the Prince. When I began to act, the Princess knew it and the Prince reacted to it. That is why they came, for their liege."

"Why did he choose to capture the princess? Did he know the future too?" Keagan asked.

Setsuna shook her head. "No, he didn't know the future. He just thought that if he took the princess that it would demoralize the Senshi and he would have better terms in which to barter. But no Senshi appeared for ten years and he grew complacent. He finally realized that he _had _changed the future. However, he was cautious and he knew that at least one Senshi was still there. He was nervous about confronting me again and he stayed away. Only when I acted, did Daray appear again." 

"If he wants a bargaining chip, then why doesn't he bargain now?" Jace questioned.

"Because he did his history. He knows that no Senshi would agree to his terms because he would just torture and torment the princess anyway and they'd fight because they would have no reason not to."

"How do we defeat him? And where is Usagi?" Haruka asked.

"Usagi is in his realm; in the safest place he can put her: his own castle in his own realm. He is terrified of the Senshi and the second any one of us hurts him he will run straight back to his safe place."

"Then how does that help us?" Makoto whined.

"If we can stoke his pride in such a way that he will stay and fight us, then we can defeat him that way."

"We?" Zale repeated cautiously.

"Yes, 'we'," Setsuna replied grimly. "I will not be late again."

"But even if we defeat him, how will that return Usagi to us?" Michiru wanted to know.

"She is sleeping in a containment bubble inside his realm. Because it is his magic that is sustaining it, it will break when we defeat him. She will immediately come back to us because she is not born of his realm and the only way for her to remain there was if she had the same thing Daray does inside of him: his realm-portal. Because she does not, she cannot stay there and will be transported back to her own realm, supposing it still exists."

"Just out of curiosity," Minako began, "but what would happen if our realm didn't exist?"

"She would simply fade away when he died."

There was silence after this announcement. It was a rather depressing subject to think about.

"Could it really go that far?" Nick wondered aloud.

"It could," Setsuna told them grimly.

"We have to defeat him for the princess's sake," Minako said emphatically with a gleam of anger and hope in her eyes. 

They all nodded in agreement.

End Part 9

Yes, a lot of talking, but at least you know who 'he' is, right? Again I don't own the attacks that are in here, those are part of Legend of Dragoon, whose rights are Playstation's. Daray and the Tehee are mind though.


	11. Part 10

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 10_

As Rei walked out the door to the mansion the next day, she rubbed her arms with shame. As much as she enjoyed being with Jace, she couldn't be alone with him in a room. Last night proved that to her. 

Even though the house was very large, Haruka and Michiru simply did not have enough bedrooms for all of them. They had paired up the couples, put Setsuna in a room by herself, and took their normal one. Jace and Rei had both said in front of everyone, with a certainty, that nothing would happen and that they hadn't needed to be separated. Part of the reason Rei had said so was because she didn't want to pull the other couples apart when they needed the time to themselves.

It had started out fine, a simple conversation. They hadn't even gotten around to asking who would take the bed, however, when they were both in it, him on top of her and slowly peeling off her shirt. She loved him so much and hadn't the heart to stop him, even if she had remembered Yuuichirou at all that night.

Shame burned in her face and heart. How could she face him when she got home? She had cheated on him twice now. Yuuichirou deserved better than what she could give him. He didn't deserve a cheating wife who would drop him the second her previous life lover came sauntering back toward her with a smile on his face and an expectant look in his eyes. One who would willingly risk everything for that very same said lover.

No, that wasn't right. She wouldn't have risked the princess or her friends. But did Yuuichirou fall under those categories? Did he? She just didn't know. 

Rei stumbled down the street as another memory staggered her.

_"Raye, listen to me carefully!" her father roared. "You will marry Prince __Chad__ from Saturn if I have to drag you down that alter myself!"_

_"He is death!" she screamed back. "Death to my heart! I love another and you cannot make me wed someone I don't love! As a Senshi, I am given that privilege to marry the one I love, be he prince or pauper!"_

_"Are you tell me that the Princess of Mars is in love with a PAUPER?!"_

_"What would it matter if I was?" she retorted back, her violet eyes blazing with fury and her fiery red hair nearly flaming with her anger. _

_"Tell me who this man is!"_

_"He's Jadeite, Protector of the High Prince Endymion of Earth! He is a prince in his own right, Commander of the __Far East__ division under him!"_

_For a moment, she thought her father would have a heart attack on the spot. Then red flowed into his face so fast that she thought his color would remain that way forever instead going back to a deep tan. _

_"You have the temerity to choose an EARTHLING over a prince of Saturn?!"_

_"'Love doesn't care what planet you were born on or what rank you have'," Raye quoted Mina. "I don't care if he is an Earthling. I don't care if everyone knows it or not! I love Jadeite." _

_Her father sat weakly on the throne. Her mother put a hand on her father's wrist. "Perhaps she is right, Ares. You said the same to your father when he tried to arrange a marriage for you."_

_"But that marriage was to you!"_

_"I know we are in love, but consider this: perhaps Raye is in love with this Jadeite as you love me? Are you not considering that possibility?"_

_"Love can be learned and Prince __Chad__ already loves you right now," Ares said wearily._

_"No, I will not marry Prince __Chad__," Raye said quietly._

_"We need stronger ties to Saturn," he reprimanded sharply._

_"Then marry my sister to him!" she cried. "He would never understand that I'm a Senshi anyway!"_

_"You will marry him!"_

_Raye's eyes filled with tears and she whispered her last final denial, "No."_

_She ran from the room as fast as she could and back to the teleporter. She had to get back to the Moon. The only one who could possibly understand lived there._

_"Import destination," the computer bleeped dispassionately._

_"The __Moon__Palace__," she choked out._

_"Understood."_

_The red light flew around her and obscured her already blurry vision from her tears. When the light changed to white/silver, she knew she was on the Moon. She stumbled helplessly down the hall and without so much as a knock, flung the door to the princess's room open._

_Endymion and Serenity both jumped up from their compromising position, but when Serenity saw her face, she forgot everything else._

_"Raye, what happened back on Mars?" she asked, alarmed._

_Raye threw herself in her princess's arms with a heart-wrenching sob. Endymion touched the princess's arm and nodded. Slowly he closed the door behind him as he left._

_The whole story flooded from her mouth into her princess's smaller chest, not even daring to look up. She sensed another's presence in the room, but she didn't look up, assuming it was another of the girls._

_Serenity looked up and asked, "What did you say when he told you that you were to marry Prince __Chad__?"_

_"I told him…no. I told him that I loved Jadeite and I didn't care if everyone knew he was an Earthling. I told him that I would never marry Prince __Chad__. Oh gods, Sere, I would rather die a thousand torturous deaths over and over rather than live a moment without Jadeite. He sa-sa-said that I was going to anyway!" she whined quietly._

_"Oh, Raye," said a voice behind her._

_Raye whirled and saw Jadeite standing in the doorway, his face stricken with sadness and love. Endymion had obviously informed him of her upset state and he had come running, like she knew he would._

_Serenity stood up and slowly left the room. Jadeite walked before her and kneeled. She looked down at him from her perch on the end of Serenity's bed. _

_"Did you really mean that?"_

_"Yes. With all of my heart that beats in my breast with the fires of my planet."_

_"Oh, Raye." And he pulled her into his arms without a word. She cried into his shoulder until she fell asleep…_

Eventually her father had blessed the couple and that was what the Martian Princess had wanted all along. She was happy for that for a long, long time. It had taken nearly a year of no communication with her father and a year on the Moon with Jadeite to prove her point. What point? As Mina had put it, _'Love doesn't care what planet you were born on or what rank you have'_.

Rei put a hand on her heart and the other on her head as the image of Prince Chad filled her eyes. Chad was him! Chad was Yuuichirou! 

"Oh gods, what am I going do?" she whispered. She had sworn to her father that she would never marry Prince Chad, never. But she had done it without even knowing it. She had given up on true love the day she had said 'I do' without even realizing it. If only she had waited a little longer, believed just a little more...What she said back in the Silver Millennium still rang true to her. _"He is death! Death to my heart!"_

She was denying her love for a chance to save her marriage. And she knew Yuuichirou would never accept her being a Senshi either. She started walking again, more slowly this time. And, she admitted to herself, she wanted to be with Jace more than anything else in the world that she had ever wished for before.

When Rei entered the shrine, she had already firmed her heart for what she was about to do. Even if he made declarations of love before or after, she would not waver. She loved another; he must understand that. _What if he doesn't? _She shook the thought ruthlessly from her head. He _had to understand. He just had to._

Yuuichirou smiled at her when she entered, but she could not bring herself to smile back.

"What's the matter, Rei? You've been more distant than usual."

"Sit down, Yuuichirou. We have to talk," she commanded.

He did so, with a puzzled frown. She sat down across from him at the table.

"Yuuichirou," Rei took a deep breath, "I…I…" She steeled her heart for whatever reaction that he would give, "I want a…divorce." Nevertheless she winced at the word.

At first he was silent, but Rei would not look away. He deserved that much at least. Finally he asked, "Is it another man?"

She laid her hands on the table and looked him in the eye, calling on all her priestess training to help guide her and keep her calm. She could not bear to break down in front of him for he would not understand why she was crying.

"Yes and no. There are a lot of things that have happened in the past week and I cannot explain any of it to you simply because I don't understand even half of it myself. But the main point of it is this: I don't love you anymore."

His face was white and his hands were clenched around each other. Any moment she expected his bones to break. He had such a strong grip, she mused. There were times she had admired that about him, but there had never been a deep love, if there had been any love at all. Perhaps in passing, she thought, but it had burned out; it was not the eternal flame of the love that she shared with Jace; that Mars shared with Jadeite.

"Look, Yuuichirou, we both know it would come to this eventually. Ever since we started fighting," she said gently.

He jumped to his feet and she looked at him in surprise. "It's those friends of yours, isn't it? They don't like me and they're trying to break us up?"

Rei leapt to her feet in anger, but she forced herself to keep her voice low and with reason, though her fury was lacing her words anyway. "Listen to yourself, Yuuichirou. You're talking nonsense. When have I ever let someone else's judgment influence anything about my life?"

His shoulders deflated and looked down at the ground. "I know, you're right. I was just hoping that I would be right and this could be saved. I was hoping that what you said wasn't true; hoping that if I said something this bad dream would break and we'd be back to normal the way it was three years ago."

She took his hand in hers. "It was a good marriage, it had its high points, but you and I both know it wouldn't have lasted. Tell me the truth, Yuuichirou: aren't you the least bit surprised that we lasted this long as it was?"

He laughed a little, even though it was sad. "Yeah, I am. I'm surprised you even agreed to marry me. You've always been so strong-willed and even the people at our wedding said we made an odd couple." He laughed shortly again then lost his small smile. "Tell me one thing, Rei: who is he?"

Rei pulled away and looked at the wall, but her face filled with love that she couldn't hide when she said his name. "Jace, the man that you saw at the temple with Minako, Keagan, and Makoto."

Yuuichirou nodded. "I saw the way he looked at you. He loves you as well, deeply. Perhaps you will be as happy as those two I told you about were. You know the ones in the battle."

Inside, Rei blanched. "I hope so too."

"Well, I'll get my stuff."

"I'll pick up the papers tomorrow," Rei said quietly.

Yuuichirou winced, but nodded. 

There was silence for a long time after he had left.

End part 10

Another short one. Haven't had one of those in a while…


	12. Part 11

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 11_

Makoto woke with a pounding headache and she had no idea why. Lightning flashed outside and the daylight darkened over as thunderclouds appeared on the horizon. Why did she feel as if someone had run a bus over her three times? She couldn't remember. Then she started to panic; what if she didn't remember anything?

Forcing herself to breath deeply, she went over the necessary information in the most important order:

Princess Serenity was alive.

The princess was captured by Daray.

She was a Senshi.

She was Sailor Jupiter.

She was Kino Makoto.

She loved Nick Michael Canter.

She loved Nephrite, who was Nick.

She was a world famous street fighter.

"I remember everything, so _what the hell happened?" she demanded in the silence._

"You were hit really badly by Daray yesterday."

The voice came from the doorway and her head whipped around. Immediately she wished she had not, for her vision went gray around the edges and a little blurry. After a moment of squinting and blinking, she identified a doctor in the door. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Ami.

"Oh." Her brow furrowed as she thought. Vague images entered her mind and she forced them to clearer clarity. "Now I remember. What happened after I went out?"

"The others were fairly bad off as well," the woman said, sitting down next to her patient and friend. "Mars nearly had a broken arm and Venus wasn't so good either. Uranus and Neptune disappeared shortly after that because of a daemon attack across town. I haven't seen them since. I'm sure glad that Nephrite is on our side." She shook her head in wonder. "When you went down, he went ballistic. He was moving so fast and using his attacks so quickly, the youma didn't know what hit him."

"Youma?"

"He had to go through a youma to reach Daray. Unfortunately, as soon as he killed it, Daray disappeared. Having Nephrite go through the youma gave him the time to disappear."

"Why did he leave when he had us by the, ahem, balls?"

"Because Pluto showed up. Whatever Pluto did ten years ago, it hasn't left him yet. He turned white and started shaking as soon as he saw her. And Pluto! She twirled her staff and looked murderous. If he hadn't left then, I would have bet anything that she would have killed him. When he disappeared, I heard her mutter that she wished she could wipe him from the Time Stream."

"Can she do that?" Makoto whispered, eyes wide.

Ami hesitated. "I think she _can, yes, but also __can't. I think it is _possible _for her to do it, but against all her rules."_

"Oh. How are Rei and the others?"

"They're fine. No one had anything as severe as your concussion." 

Makoto groaned and put her hand to her head. "I feel like crap."

"I know, but it should pass."

A knock on the door and Ami turned to it. An intern poked his head in. "Doctor Mizuno?"

"Yes, I'll be right there." He nodded and closed the door. Ami turned back to Makoto who had resolutely shut her eyes against the dreary light coming in from the window at the back of the room.

"I have rounds to do, but you do have visitors."

When Ami left, another entered. Makoto forced her eyes open and looked at the person. Her eyes widened. Rei.

"What's the matter?"

Her eyes were red and puffy from crying hard and she looked like she had lost a lot of weight though Makoto knew she couldn't have possibly lost that much within a day!

Rei flung herself on the chair and cried into Makoto's lap. "Oh, Mako-chan, I was so worried about you! And today I gave Yuuichirou the papers. He was so quiet about it and then he noticed my wounds from the other day, in the battle, and before I could stop him, he confronted Jace and attempted to fight him. Jace told him, when he had Yuuichirou on his back that he would rather die a thousand deaths over and over again than ever lay a hurting finger on me. Oh, Mako-chan, that's what I said to my father, the King of Mars, back in the Silver Millennium!"

Makoto patted Rei's head and ran her hands through the woman's hair to calm her. "What happened after that?"

"Yuuichirou asked how I got them then and Jace shook his head. We didn't know what to tell him. Then his eyes widened and mentioned the battle. We both thought that he had figured out who we were until he jumped up and said that I must have been hit when the warriors were fighting those monsters. His concern was almost too much, Mako-chan, I nearly broke down crying at it. After all that's happened, he still loves me. And I don't love him!"

"You can't help how he feels about you." Then Makoto felt steel meld with her spine. "He isn't affecting your relationship with Jace is he?" she asked sharply. 

"No…well, Jace knows that I feel bad about Yuuichirou and we don't see much of each other anymore, because I guess he feels as if he is partly to blame for my feelings. Now I don't have him anymore or Yuuichirou. I ruined my marriage for Jace and now he won't even come around."

Makoto looked up at Nick, who stood silently in the doorway. She nodded behind him and he nodded back, leaving.

"Don't worry, Rei-chan. I think it will work out between you two."

Rei looked up at her and hope filtered into her eyes. "Really?"

"Absolutely."

Nick touched Jace's arm and the man looked up at him. He gestured to the door and the two left, wandering around the block that the hospital sat on. Finally Nick broke the silence between the friends.

"How are things between you and Rei?"

"Not good. She's upset at her marriage and I can't bear to be around her, seeing her cry and my presence doesn't help either. I think it just reminds her of what she did to Yuuichirou."

"Ah. And the fight between you and him?"

Jace sighed with frustration. "He attacked me and I mainly dodged. It didn't take much. After ten minutes, finally I knocked him to the ground so he would listen to me. He still loves Rei with a passion, the same way I love her. I tried not to hurt Yuuichirou, since he loves Rei so much and that would only hurt her."

"You do realize she thinks she's lost them both, right?"

"Huh?"

"She got a divorce from Yuuichirou and now you don't come around. She thinks she's lost you both. She gave up Yuuichirou for you and now that you don't come around, she thinks that now she's not only lost Yuuichirou but you as well."

"Oh gods above, what a mess I've made!" he cried, gripping his hair in his hands.

"It's not too late to fix it."

Jace ran off ahead when he saw the hospital door. "Don't forget the meeting tonight!" Nick called off after him.

"Tomorrow is the day," Minako said grimly at Michiru and Haruka's home. "Tomorrow is the day that we will free the princess and the prince. Mako-chan, how are you feeling?"

Makoto stood up and ground her fist in her open palm. "I'm perfect, Minako-chan. I will fight tomorrow."

A slight smile crossed the blonde woman's face. "I wouldn't believe we could stop you anyway. Haruka, Michiru, will you be there?"

The partners looked at each other and nodded back at their leader. "Though our mission that was given to us is different," Haruka began, "we will still fight for the princess first and foremost." Michiru nodded.

"And finally, Setsuna. Will you be fighting as well?"

All eyes fixed on the older woman and she stood up. "Yes. I will fight with you."

"Then that is all we need to know. I presume I don't have to ask if the Shitennou if they will fight?" she asked with a raised eyebrow at Keagan.

He nodded. "We will fight. For our prince, for his princess, for our loves, and for our planet, we will fight."

Makoto's eyes almost filled with tears, hearing those words that were said long ago at the fall of the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Millennium. It was so, so long ago, she mused. If only it was still standing, would this have happened?

Setsuna gave her a speculative look, as if divining what she was thinking from her expression. Makoto stared right back, daring the woman to tell her what might have happened. Setsuna shook her head and looked away.

Only Minako and Keagan seemed to have noticed the exchange, but they said nothing, only broke up the meeting.

Rei and Jace went into the room they had shared the last time. Immediately Rei clamped her lips over his. Earlier that day, he had apologized profusely on his knees for his behavior. Rei had broken down, crying and hugging him. She had almost been afraid she had lost him there.

They fell on the bed for perhaps the last time in that lifetime.

Haruka and Michiru watched the couples split up to go to their guest rooms. Setsuna came and stood beside them.

"It just doesn't seem right," Haruka said softly.

"What doesn't?" her partner asked quietly.

"There should be five couples, not four."

Michiru nodded. Setsuna nodded at them and went to her bedroom. Haruka put her arm around her love and led her back to their room. Michiru smiled softly and allowed her to lead.

Ami and Zale entered their room, this one the most predominately colored blue than the others. Zale had agreed that the blue was nice, but with a little green would have made it better. Ami had jabbed his ribs, knowing he was teasing her.

Now the Mercurial princess typed furiously on her computer when Zale gently closed it. She looked up at him in surprise. He smiled down on her gently.

"Come to bed. No matter how many numbers you crunch, the outcome will always be the same: Unknown."

She sighed. "I guess you're right."

He took her chin in his hands and kissed her soundly. Her arms went around his neck as he led her to the mattress.

Makoto fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling while Nick closed the door. 

"What do you think will happen tomorrow?" she asked quietly.

Nick looked at her. "I don't know, Mako-chan."

She curled on her side. "I want the princess back with me, Nick. I want to hold her in my arms and tell her how happy I am that she's safe. But I may never get that chance. I may die before I get to see her. The only thing I want to see before I die in this life is her beautiful blue eyes. Ones that can encompass the world with her love."

Nick sat down next to her stomach and ran his hand through her hair, staring into space. "You will survive this battle, Mako-chan. I shall make sure of that. You shall see your princess. In that way I guess we Shitennou were blessed over the Senshi."

Makoto sat up and took out the band in her hair. "What do you mean?"

He looked at her. "Well, we knew Mamoru, could talk to him, protect him. Even when he fell when the princess was taken, we had had the chance to see him and know him. You never had that feeling, never even saw your princess in this life."

She leaned against his shoulder. "You're right.  And it's tearing me apart, not being able to be there and protect her against the gods know what."

Nick rubbed his hands over her back, the comforting gesture turning into something more sensual the longer he did it. His lips descended on hers and he laid her back down. She made a sound of surprise, but didn't protest.

Keagan watched Minako pace. Normally she never indulged in such things, but he found that when Venus was about to go into an intense battle, she tended to do that to release some of her tension. She was fully Venus in mind, even if she wasn't transformed.

"Kunzite?"

His suspicion was confirmed when she called him by his Shitennou name. It was safe enough there, he supposed, to say it. "Yes?"

"What do you think he'll do?"

Keagan shook his head. "I don't know, Venus. We're both strategists, but we're not as good as Mercury or Zoisite, and even they weren't able to find a good one, only telling us to be defense until we saw how he fought. Even Pluto wasn't able to tell us anything. She said he ran away when she confronted him ten years ago."

She sighed and sat down next to him. He turned his head and looked down at her. "There's something else that's wrong, isn't there?" he asked shrewdly.

Reluctantly, she nodded. "I should be concerned about the princess and the other Senshi, and I am, but I can't help but think about you." Shyly she looked up at him.

"I will be fine."

"That's not what I mean."

He cocked his head and asked, "Then what's the matter?"

Minako blushed. "Well, this may be my last battle, especially as leader of the Senshi. I may die and I don't want to leave this world without telling you just how much I love you. You brought me back from despair when my heart was broken most and I love you forever. I always will; I did then and I do now."

Keagan smiled and touched her cheek with a delicate finger. "And I love you, Minako; I love you, Venus. I love you both, for you are the same. I loved you then and I do now."

She smiled and he leaned down, hesitantly kissing her lips lightly. She immediately opened her mouth and he slid his tongue in gently. She pulled him down on top of her and turned off the light.

End part 11

Last part and then the epilogue. Woohoo! It's almost done!


	13. Part 12

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Part 12_

The Senshi and Shitennou gathered in the park in the predawn light, waiting. They knew he would be here. Deep in their bones, they knew he would show up. When, they didn't know, but they hoped soon. As Jupiter said, the waiting was the worst part and Jupiter wasn't good at waiting, it being the bane of her existence.

A ripple in the air occurred before their vision just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Daray seemed startled when they were there, but as they made no move to attack, he summoned no youma or demons.

Venus and Kunzite stepped forward slowly, to make sure he didn't bolt in surprise. "Daray, you have the Princess Serenity. Give her back to us now." Her voice was low and controlled, showing none of her anger.

A slow smile appeared on his face. It was not a pleasant one. He shifted in the air and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why, yes. Yes, I do."

"Give her back," Venus repeated.

He made a great show of thinking it over. "No, I don't think so."

Venus's frustration showed on her face, knowing he was baiting her. He knew just how much the princess meant to all of them and all he wanted to see was her squirming in anger, rage, and pain. She growled deep in her throat before she got herself in control. _Taunt his pride, she repeated to herself. But how? What would taunt him?_

She half turned to Pluto, who stepped up next to her. A flash of fear crossed his face, but when she didn't strike, he stayed, wary.

"Daray, I see you remember me. But I couldn't be sure because you did not stay to fight me ten years ago _or recently. What was I to think?"_

"I don't engage in pointless and futile acts of physical violence."

"Why is that?" Jadeite sneered behind her. "Because you can't?"

"My strength lies in magic, not the physical," he said in an oily voice.

It was obvious that going on that route would get them nowhere fast. "But even though that's where your strength lies, you captured the princess to gain more power?" Venus asked.

Daray frowned. "I did not capture her because of her piddly little stone."

"Then you had no reason to anger the Senshi?" Kunzite said, pretending wonder. "You only did it because she was more beautiful than you?"

It was a guess, and no one knew if it would bring results. But it seemed Daray had a highly vain side. 

"She is _not more beautiful than I." His frown deepened._

"If was not for her beauty, then it must have been because she is more powerful than you," Zoisite said.

"She is not more powerful than me!" A tick appeared next to his eye.

They knew they were getting somewhere else, but how to approach it so it wasn't obvious what they were doing? 

"Then why did you do it? What does she have that you do not?"

"She has nothing I do not have!" The tick intensified.

"Then why?"

Daray's breathing grew heavy in his anger. "Why are you questioning like this?! Fine, I'll show you that she has nothing that I don't, I am more powerful, and more beautiful!"

He floated down and red light swirled around him. They dropped into defensive stances, but when the attack hit, it was obvious they could not beat him in magical attacks. It would have to be physical.

Jupiter jumped behind him and did a roundabout kick at his neck. It connected, snapping his head back as his body was thrust forward. The most proficient in physical fighting stepped forward as well and soon Daray was bouncing from one corner of the circle made to the other.

He finally made it to the center and threw his hand up in the air. Ice blue light hit his open palm and at his feet wind picked up. Suddenly purple lightning crashed down on everyone there, nearly stopping their hearts. Jupiter was the least one affected, though she was on her knees like everyone else.

Daray jumped into the air and, with a gesture, the earth heaved violently like a bucking bronco. Had anyone been able to get to their feet, they were immediately thrown back down to the ground. Stones rained down on their heads like raindrops and in the same abundance in a thunderstorm, which was soon approaching.

It had been overcast all yesterday and night, though it hadn't rained. It seemed to make up its mind that day, and thunder rumbled ominously. Lightning flashed, whether because of Jupiter's Thunder God attack or because of the weather was uncertain.

Pluto dragged herself to her feet, blood running down the side of her face from where a rather small boulder had hit her head. 

"Astral Drain!" 

Mist surrounded Pluto's feet. The jewel on her staff glowed bright red. She twirled once and, bracing her feet abruptly, thrust it toward Daray. Pale purple light sprouted around her, tossing her hair into the air. Maroon rays flew from her Time Key to the man and he screamed as they penetrated inside of him, attacking the portal that resided in his body.

When the attack ended, he took his vengeance on them harshly. While most of the Senshi and Shitennou were still recovering from the first two attacks, Daray's hands flashed and small blades appeared. With a flick of his wrist, they soared toward the warriors, each multiplying to make a thousand shallow and deep cuts on their bodies.

He laughed as they cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching an arm or leg. Venus glared up at him and cried out, 

"Star Children!" Beams of light and golden stars burst from her hands as she held them at her sides. She brought them above her head and twirled. The beams and golden stars appeared around Daray's body, attacking with sharp blades of power. He cried out as it cut into him, making him bleed. 

With a burst of power, her attack was thrust away before it could completely end. He slammed a black ball of raw power straight at her chest and she flew back five feet, landing with a thud next to Zoisite.

"We need more help than this," Mercury cried out as he readied another attack. "We cannot survive another of spell of his."

Pluto didn't know what to do. She hadn't exactly thought it would be easy, but she _had thought that Daray would fall for their ploy and fight physically. In that way, they would have had the advantage, but with him floating up there and tossing dangerous spells left and right, they were at the dangerous disadvantage._

A silver light from the moon brought the battlefield in stark relief as the heaven's let out and rain poured down on them, lightning flashing every few seconds. Daray had his eyes closed and was concentrating hard, but Pluto could hardly take advantage of it and neither could anyone else. The Shitennou tried their magical attacks, for it was the only way to reach him, but they just bounced off a shield of his.

A wave of blackness swept over them and forcing Pluto and the others to retch on the ground. It must have been a side-effect of the spell because Daray was still concentrating. What could she do?

"Death Dimension!"

Pluto froze. She recognized that voice. Her head turned as she saw the Senshi of Destruction, Saturn, concentrating as well. Her dark purple aura appeared and the glaive's blade glowed brightly. 

Saturn's eyes slit open and she glared at Daray, though he didn't see. The glaive was thrust high in the air. Lightning arced toward it, but it was repelled away, by something Pluto couldn't see. 

Her purple light surrounded Daray and she pointed the glaive at him. Suddenly his eyes snapped open as his shield shattered. The scenery around them changed and Pluto shuddered. It looked to be the seventh level of hell itself. Saturn floated above the ground and black and purple vines burst from the ground, grabbing at Daray and sucking his life away from him.

Saturn extended her arm and snapped calmly, the attack ending and leaving their enemy drained extensively of life, magic, and will. Pluto and the others found the scenery back at the park again.

"Now, girls!" Venus called.

The Senshi stood up and the Shitennou touched their loves shoulders, giving solid support as they called on their power as well. Pluto's tiara glowed and she saw the others' glow too. Kunzite's aura appeared, a strong gray. Nephrite's glowed, a deep brown. Zoisite's formed, a brilliant sea-green. Jadeite's brightened, a vibrant blue.

"Final Burst!" Mars's hands glowed and she pointed her palms at Daray. A stream of fire erupted forth.

"Thunder God!" Jupiter crossed her wrists over her head as her tiara extended, streaming green light as well. Lightning dropped down on Daray from above.

"Diamond Dust!" Ice formed on Mercury's fingertips and she held her cupped palms toward Daray, water forming then freezing in an arc. That same arc suddenly appeared over his head and shattered, dropping down deadly shards of ice.

"Grand Stream!"

"Meteor Strike!"

The partner's attacks combined together, Neptune's waterfall of water surrounding Uranus's meteor as it flew toward Daray.

"Death Dimension!" Saturn, though she had just done her attack, did it again, this time her tiara glowing and purple light streaming toward Daray.

"Astral Drain!" Pluto felt her power flowing toward her tiara. Maroon light flooded her vision and comforted her hurt body that even then complained. Her staff rose in her limp hand and pointed straight at Daray's heart. She opened her eyes and glared at him as her attack was released.

"Silver Dragon!"

Venus's dragon burst from her tiara and screamed a war cry, feeling and feeding off all the emotions of all the fighters. It flew faster than the other attacks, absorbing them and gaining substance. 

Daray's face was a mass of horror and terror. The dragon flew faster than that last time he had seen it coming toward him and he knew he couldn't escape. He formed his shield, but everyone, including himself, knew it was for naught. The only attack that could break it, Saturn's Death Dimension, was already absorbed by that dangerous dragon.

He screamed, finally feeling the pain he had inflicted badly on other people. His heart beat irregularly as Jupiter's lightning disrupted its own electrical current and Saturn's attack drained more life from him. Slowly he died, in agony, and unable to save himself.

His body floated limply down to the ground and ceased to twitch after a moment. Then with a twinkle of white light, it disappeared. There were cries of disbelief and worry until Pluto said calmly, "Don't worry. He was dead; his body just went back to his own realm when the portal inside of him was destroyed."

"So where is Serenity?" demanded Mars tensely.

Pluto looked toward the sky and everyone's eyes followed hers. Silver light flew out in the wind, moving as if was hair. Soon twin streams of golden hair formed and fell down to the feet of an angel. She smiled at them as tears fell from their eyes.

They saw white pumps on her feet as she landed on the ground. She wore wings on the back of her white dress with a crown on her head and a jewel floating above her right palm.

A blast of white light passed through them and each of the Senshi found white wings at their back. The Shitennou smiled over their loves heads at their dumbfounded expressions. Obviously they had not remembered that change in their uniforms from back in the Silver Millennium.

"Serenity!" Mars cried, but before she took a step forward, her eyes focused on Saturn, who walked forward calmly.

She knelt in front of the woman and said, "I thank you for releasing me, my Queen."

Serenity smiled and pulled the woman to her feet. "Saturn, you are my friend. It was nothing; please do not kneel before me."

Suddenly it was like a tide and all the Senshi ran to their friend, hugging, kissing, and scolding intermingled. Serenity smiled and acknowledged each one with tears in her own eyes. 

Her warriors stepped away as her attention was completely drawn from her friends and to somewhere behind them. They turned and caught their breath. The man before them was not the man in the hospital. The man in the hospital had no relation to the one who was standing there. 

His muscles bulged and looked strong, not atrophied because of disuse. His armor shined as if it was just polished and his sword gleamed in its scabbard. He smiled at Serenity.

"Endymion," she whispered. "Endymion!"

And in a moment, she was in his arms, crying into his chest. The Shitennou smiled as they stood behind their liege. The Inner Senshi smiled back at their counterparts as they stood behind their Queen.

Luna and Artemis ran into the midst and jumped up on Serenity's shoulder, Luna crying. Serenity pulled away from her love and hugged her guardian cat. Artemis jumped from her shoulder and into Venus's arms. 

"I was afraid I'd lose you," he whispered.

Venus hugged his furry little body to her. "You would never."

Jupiter touched the angel's shoulder. "Would you like to see your family?"

The way her eyes sparkled told the Jovian Soldier she had said the right thing. Her head nodded violently and she smiled brightly. Jupiter smiled as well. "Besides, I promised them I would come back with answers. I think it would be better if I came back with the real thing."

At Serenity's insistence, they were in Zale's car and the others in Haruka's van in but a moment. Makoto waved for Serenity to stay in the car as she rung the doorbell. She wasn't entirely sure they were home, for one, and two, it was a safety measure. Just In Case.

The door immediately opened and Ikuko ran out to meet the tall woman. Kenji and Shingo followed more slowly. The older woman threw the gate open with a smile. "You came back."

"I told you I would," she said with a smile.

"Do you have any answers?" Shingo asked.

"No." Before disappointment or despair could cross their features, she said, "I have something better. Serenity?"

She opened the door and helped the lady out, because she had tended to stumble ever so slightly in the long gown and getting in the car had been an adventure and a half all by itself.

The family's eyes widened as they saw their daughter, standing beautiful before them. Ikuko was the first to shake out of her shock. Her arms wrapped around the woman's shoulders in a vise-like grip. The men immediately surrounded her, hugging and kissing, with tears streaming down all their faces.

"Please, come in," said Ikuko brokenly as she remembered her manners.

Rei got out of the van and replied with a grin, "Do you have enough room for all of us?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Kenji.

Everyone filed out from either the van or the car. Five men and eight women were standing there, not including Usagi.

Ikuko laughed. "Of course we have room."

Soon the living room was crowded with people, but Kenji's first question shut everyone up.

"Usagi-chan, where have you been?"

Serenity looked at all her friends and back at her family. She took a deep breath. "I don't know if I should tell you all these things, but you deserve to know, considering we both have waited ten years to be reunited." She then unwove the tale that was as incredulous to them as it had been to the Senshi when Setsuna had first told them.

"Why did Makoto-san call you Serenity, Usagi-chan?" Shingo asked, perplexed, when it was clear none of the other members of his family were going to say anything.

"Because I was Princess Serenity, Shingo. Now I will be Neo-Queen Serenity."

"You? A Queen?" Shingo laughed and Usagi laughed with him, remembering their banter ten years ago when she had been but a teenager.

With many tears shed, and after Serenity had introduced her soon to be husband to her family (eliciting a small inquisition from her father), they left for the safe house of Haruka and Michiru's. 

Usagi sighed in relief when they entered the building. She was now Usagi, not Serenity, and now she was home again.

End part 12

Yeah, only the epilogue left!! Again, all attacks in here do not belong to me, rather to the Legend of Dragoon people, like Playstation and them.


	14. Epilogue

This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

_Angelic Embrace_

_Epilogue_

Makoto walked down the white carpet that had been laid across the grass of the Hikawa Shrine. Her heart swelled with pride and her eyes sparkled. It had taken a while, a long while, while they had set up Crystal Tokyo. Many people had objected to the rule at first, but with the standing, it had worked out pretty well. She had no idea how the other countries would accept Crystal Tokyo and its use of magic, that was for another time, but at least Tokyo was safe. But now that everything was more or less settled, she finally had the chance to marry Nick.

She looked over at Rei, standing as her maid of honor. The woman's stomach bulged and the dress could not completely hide it. Rei was seven months pregnant and it came as a bit of a surprise that she and Jadeite were not married yet. Rei was still getting over the divorce and Jace was willing to wait. Endymion and Serenity were already married, and their baby girl, Chibiusa, was held in her grandmother's arms, trying to keep her still. Ikuko still swore that the child was becoming more and more like Usagi every day. As for Usagi herself, she soon showed her true colors, a cheerful, bright, and sometimes forgetful and clumsy woman, but that only endeared her more to the Senshi.

Out of the four Inner couples, she was the first to get married. Ami and Zale were taking it slow, though with her now being the Surgeon General of Crystal Tokyo, it left very little time at the moment to make wedding plans. When things settled down and the demand on her time lessened, Makoto was sure that Zale would pop the big question. Minako and Keagan were scheduled to be married three months from then. 

She looked through the green veil at the Nick, up ahead and in a black tuxedo. Standing as his best man was Jace. Both Makoto and Nick had been forbidden to use the royals, as much as they'd wanted to, because they had to perform the wedding ceremony, though Ami and Minako were both Makoto's bridesmaids. 

Makoto's thoughts traveled back to when she had been picking out her wedding dress. The dressmaker had insisted on white, saying it was traditional, but Makoto had contradicted and said not where she was from. Eventually Usagi had had to come down to settle things because neither would give in. Makoto got her green dress for her Jovian family. 

She had her arm through Kenji's, who had become much like a father to her ever since she had brought him his daughter back. He had offered to walk her down the aisle and, with tears in her eyes, she had gratefully accepted. 

It was a small wedding, but the most important people were there. Sitting in the front row chairs sat the Outer Senshi, Haruka in a dress for Makoto's wedding. Michiru looked radiant as well as she smiled at the lightning Senshi. Beside her sat Hotaru, Sailor Saturn. The woman never said much, but her eyes and attitude more than made up for that. And last but not least, Setsuna sat next to her, her eyes brimming with tears. Makoto beamed at the Senshi of Time and she did not wipe her tears away.

Luna and Artemis sat in Shingo's lap, who sat next to his mother in the other first row of chairs on the left side of the aisle. Every once in a while, Ikuko would shoo his hand away from Chibiusa. He was absolutely infatuated with the child. Makoto couldn't begin to count how many times he had begged his sister to let him baby-sit the girl. At least, Makoto reflected, she'd always have a willing babysitter.

Other people were in other rows, but the most important people were near the front, the most important people to her heart. In just the space of a few weeks, Makoto had gotten all she'd ever dreamed of: Her friends, her Senshi, her princess now queen and her king, and her love. Over the year that they'd fought to establish Crystal Tokyo, the bond of the Senshi, Shitennou, and the royals had only deepened to something unbreakable, even by Time.

Kenji handed her to Nick and nodded to his daughter, his Queen. She smiled back at him as he sat next to his wife, playing with Chibiusa until she swatted his hand and made him pay attention. He winked at Makoto playfully when she looked at him.

As the ceremony went on, Makoto clutched Nick's arm tighter and tighter. She couldn't help remembering the last time she had tried to get married. He smiled reassuringly at her and kissed her soundly when it was time.

"Don't ever worry about that again," he whispered against her lips as the cheering arose around them.

"I won't ever. I love you, Nick."

"I love you, Makoto."

_And I love my Queen_, she thought, _but most of all, I love my life._

End epilogue.

So what did you think? Send me an email if you want here: Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put Fanfiction in the subject line.


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